This is the most insipid, insidious kind of political filmmaking, like that disingenuous eight-hour exposition-funeral.Īs portrayed by American Idol contestant Jennifer Hudson, Franklin represents the evolution of a timid black girl from Detroit, brought up in the Baptist church, subjugated by her preacher-father the Reverend C. Here, Franklin’s life is merely the pretext for a #MeToo-era tract. The movie, directed by Liesl Tommy and written by Tracey Scott Wilson to be a rise-to-consciousness tale, levels the intimate and social dynamics that Franklin made deep and exuberant. Feminists and the corporate media flattened the song’s relationship subtleties to assert female social status. Exploited by the Democratic Party that organized her 2018 funeral as a campaign stunt for politicians who jumped on the Queen of Soul’s cortège, Franklin gets exploited again in the lugubrious, nearly three-hour biopic Respect.Ĭheck that title: The word “Respect” devolves from Franklin’s powerful 1967 single, an R&B hit later appropriated by the feminist movement, with insensitive disregard for black American language and romance. Blige as Dinah Washington in Respect.Ī retha Franklin can’t get no respect. Jennifer Hudson as Aretha Franklin and Mary J.
