Beauty

The first thing to grapple with in Beauty is the question of is this a Whitney Houston biopic? Because there are several similarities in terms of the character’s life and look. Personally, I’m going to say it’s not a biopic. It’s inspired by Whitney Houston, sure. But if you look at Beauty as a Whitney Houston biopic, it completely sucks. Looking at Beauty as its own story… Well, it still kind of sucks. But less so.

The titular Beauty is a young woman with aspirations of musical stardom. Her parents support her in this but also are controlling and abusive. Beauty also has a girlfriend named Jasmine. This is a sore point for Beauty’s very religious parents. Beauty’s parents and a record executive make the decision that Beauty is ready for stardom. So, Beauty’s music career begins. But as she gets herself away from the control of her parents, she finds that the record industry wants to control her just the same. Beauty struggles with her sense of identity as a queer, black woman when neither of those descriptors make her management very happy.

The main positive to Beauty is that there is a level of polish. This is a good-looking film with some very attractive individual shots. The film is told more in vignettes than a particularly strong linear narrative. The directorial style adds a quality to these scenes which make them feel like memories that stand particularly clear in someone’s mind. Beauty is also a Netflix film. So it also has that Netflix sheen to it. I don’t know how they do it, but Netflix projects look like they’ve been ironed. There aren’t any wrinkles in the look of the film. The lowest parts have been flattened out. Regrettably, this also means some stylistic peaks have also been flattened into one uniform standard.

The film boasts an extremely strong cast of supporting characters. Niecy Nash and Giancarlo Esposito play Beauty’s parents. And frankly, the movie should’ve been about them. Beauty is the least interesting character. Lead actress Gracie Marie Bradley simply cannot hold her own against the other actors in the film. The character, already meant to be quiet and uncertain all but disappears. Bradley looks beautiful, but lacks enough screen presence to anchor the most reserved character in the film.

And perhaps in deference to that, Nash, Esposito and the rest of the characters feel too restrained. Beauty is an incredibly unsubtle film. Sharon Stone’s white music producer is literally named Colonizer. That’s what we’re dealing with. So, if that’s the case, just go balls to the wall and make it a full melodrama. Let Nash and Esposito really chew the scenery instead of reeling them back in. Beauty never hits emotional extremes that would’ve made it so much more watchable. The on-the-nose moral opinions, focus on Black culture and families and strong potential for melodrama remind me of a Tyler Perry movie. And I wish Perry had directed this. Director Andrew Dosunmu has a good eye for cinematography, sure. But with Tyler Perry, this movie would’ve been so insane you couldn’t help but be entertained.

The final failing of Beauty is the music. You never hear Beauty, described as having the voice of an angel actually sing. Not once. When she does sing, the film’s sound will cut out and you’ll get instrumental score. This choice only draws attention to the fact that in this movie about a singer, you never hear her sing. The only music in the film is a selection of pre-existing songs. Most of which are public domain classics, and a few 1980’s R&B contemporary hits. If your music movie doesn’t have much music in it, something’s gone wrong. I didn’t need the film to have the character absolutely belt out an original song. But can we at least have her lip sync to a pre-existing tune? So much of the film seems to be actively avoiding showing their lead character perform.

Beauty is not entirely a failure. There’s ambition and passion here. And some of it works. But ultimately, the film has more misses than hits. It’s a huge failure as a music movie because it hardly incorporates music into the film. And its lead actress doesn’t give a strong enough performance to anchor the film. The script, by Lena Waithe shows passion for exploring intersections of identity in a specific time and setting. But it never comes together in the finished project.

Overall rating: 4.6/10

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