REVIEW: Whitney is a compelling new doc plunging deep into the sad downfall of Whitney Houston

REVIEW: Whitney is the second recent documentary to chart the irresistible rise and irreversible demise of American singing legend Whitney Houston. It is also clearly the better one.

Whitney (M)

Rating: Four stars (4 out of 5)

Director: Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September)

Starring: Whitney Houston, Cissy Houston, Michael Houston, Gary Garland-Houston, Ellen White.

Lost in music, found out by life

This is the second recent documentary to chart the irresistible rise and irreversible demise of American singing legend Whitney Houston.

Let the record show that Whitney is the clearly superior work.

Scene from the documentary Whitney (2018).

2017’s Whitney: Can I Be Me? (currently available to stream on Netflix) mounted an analog analysis of Houston based purely on (not so)educated guesses.

By comparison, it is not hard to notice the new doco’s tenacious desire to dig deeper and push harder for a fuller understanding of its talented, tragic subject.

Director Kevin Macdonald, a highly skilled, Oscar-winning documentarian, makes a telling first move by reminding the viewer of the enormity of the gifts with which Whitney Houston was blessed.

Even in the lightweight pop phase of her early career, there was more going on with Houston than just an extensive vocal range, or precision pitching. There was passion. There was soul. There was belief. There was beauty.

Singer Whitney Houston while pregnant - scene from documentary film Whitney, directed by Kevin Macdonald

However, whenever Houston stepped away from the microphone, an ugly reality returned to swamp her, which the act of singing had only ever temporarily kept at bay.

Macdonald’s film expertly isolates the disconnect between the joy Houston found only in music, and the misery that was never too far away.

The filmmaker does enjoy an advantage in that he was able to secure worthwhile interview access to a relevant selection of family members, employees, collaborators and friends.

Houston’s elderly mother Cissy is a surprise participant here. Though guarded with her choice of words - and almost hostile to the idea of having to speak them - Cissy’s stern responses channel a pain and aloofness that were obviously damaging elements of her daughter’s upbringing.

Siblings and close relatives are more forthcoming on issues such as Houston’s long-running battle with drug addiction, the pressure that came with financially supporting her nearest and dearest, and the nature of her secret relationship with longtime friend Robyn Crawford.

Singer Whitney Houston clinks champagne glasses with husband Bobby Brown - scene from documentary film Whitney, directed by Kevin Macdonald

For some who already know her story, Houston’s dangerously dysfunctional marriage to Bobby Brown is not covered as stringently as it might have been.

The reason why could be attributed to the doco’s astonishing, late-breaking revelation - previously not in the public domain - that Houston was subjected to sexual abuse by a trusted relative in her childhood.

Scene from the documentary Whitney (2018).