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‘Respect’ is an enjoyable ode to Aretha
Franklin, biopic cliches and all
By Justin Chang
Los Angeles Times
T
here are moments when “Re-
spect,” an uneven, prosaic
but aff ecting new movie star-
ring Jennifer Hudson as a young
Aretha Franklin, comes close to
pinpointing something true and
revealing about its subject’s art.
That may sound like faint
praise, but it’s closer than many
musician biopics get. Watch
enough and their cliches start
to sound like greatest hits: the
troubled childhood marked by
fl ashes of genius; the record
deals and album cover mon-
tages; the marriages torn
asunder by addiction, abuse
and the ravages of fame. The
music becomes a soundtrack
at best and an afterthought
at worst, something to paper
over the gaps between traumas
and milestones.
“Respect,” glossily produced,
skillfully performed and notably
Quantrell D. Colbert/MGM
Jennifer Hudson (left) stars as Aretha Franklin, with Mary J. Blige as Dinah
Washington in “Respect.”
developed by Franklin herself
before her death in 2018, doesn’t
entirely avoid these traps. But as
directed by Liesl Tommy (“Queen
Sugar,” “The Walking Dead”),
making a solid feature debut, it
rarely stumbles right into them.
The script, by playwright and TV
writer Tracey Scott Wilson, may
be a thinner, more fl attering ac-
count than this year’s unauthor-
ized miniseries “Genius: Aretha,”
but it also makes a virtue of some
of its conventions, investing well-
worn notes with fresh reserves
of emotion. That’s fi tting, insofar
as part of Franklin’s brilliance lay
in her ability to riff on well-loved
standards; her 1972 gospel
album, “Amazing Grace,” the pro-
duction of which draws the story
to a close, is a transcendent
example. The song that gives the
movie its title is another.
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“That’s Otis Redding’s song,”
someone protests in the early
stages of Aretha’s soon-to-be-
defi nitive reworking. (“Otis who?”
comes the eventual rejoinder.)
The unveiling of that 1967 all-
timer provides a rousing mid-
movie payoff that Hudson, whom
Franklin personally selected for
the role, tears into with unsurpris-
ing aplomb. But in some ways, the
songwriting scene that precedes
it is even more enjoyable: Aretha
is up late with her sisters, Carolyn
(Hailey Kilgore) and Erma (Saycon
Sengbloh), teasing out the beats
and fl ourishes that will make this
version so memorable, including
the infectious chorus of “Ree,
Ree, Ree, Ree” — a Ree-petition
derived from Aretha’s child-
hood nickname.
“Respect” is less than persua-
sive as an addiction drama and
vague in its sense of Franklin as
a political fi gure, some nods to
her performance at Dr. King’s
funeral and her support for
Angela Davis aside. But there’s
an admirable discretion in the
way Tommy and Wilson handle
certain other aspects of their
heroine’s trauma: Rather than
rubbing the camera in her expe-
riences of physical and sexual
abuse, they reveal those experi-
ences in increments, using stac-
cato fl ashbacks that suggest the
return of repressed memories
— or, as they’re referred to here,
her “demons.”
“Respect” is fi ne, fi tfully
rousing, even respectable. And
sometimes, it’s something more.
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