Review: Nzingha Stewart Guides Lifetime's 'With This Ring' (Premieres Saturday, January 24th)

For several years now, Black women have had to contend with the media fueled stereotype of being perpetually single and unwed. (Apparently new statistics show that 50% of Black women will never get married.) Lifetime’s "With This Ring" tells the story of a group of girlfriends who make a pack to defy this label, and vow to get married (or engaged) in one year’s time.  Not unlike David E. Talbert’s "Baggage Claim" (2013), "With This Ring" centers around three thirty-plus girlfriends who want their happily-ever-after at any cost. However, they soon discover that what they thought they wanted may not actually be worth having after all.

Trista (Regina Hall) is an up-and-coming talent agent who cannot seem to get past the ex-boyfriend who never truly committed to her.  Upon discovering that she’s wasted yet another night entertaining his foolishness, Trista sets out on an unwavering quest to get a ring on her finger. Trista’s best friend Vivian (Jill Scott) is still in love with the father of her child. She pines after him, unable to move forward in her love life because of her feelings for him. Instead of telling him how she feels, Viv chooses to live in fantasyland and continues playing house with a man who sees her solely as the mother of his child.  Amaya (Eve) is a struggling actress who is frantically trying to convince her married boyfriend to leave his wife for her. Convinced that her boyfriend’s wife is having her own affair, Amaya spends hours trying to catch her in the act.  After attending their friend Elise’s (Brooklyn Sandou) New Year’s Eve wedding, the trio decides that they’ve had enough, and they take their romantic lives in their own hands. Unsurprisingly, their plans do not go accordingly.

Admittedly, a great deal of the film is comprised of Lifetime's trademark cheesy clichés (poor choices made by these women, the usual rom-com high jinks, etc), which you're either already with (especially if you're a regular Lifetime viewer), or are not. There are dream sequences, for example, that simply don't work, and the movie would've been better off without.

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Review: Lifetime's Angela Bassett-Directed 'Whitney' is Surprisingly Fresh

Admittedly, I was skeptical when I heard that Angela Bassett would be directing a film about Whitney Houston’s life for Lifetime. Ms. Bassett knew Whitney personally, having worked with her in "Waiting to Exhale" (1995), and her husband Courtney B. Vance, also worked with Whitney on the film "The Preacher’s Wife" (1996).  Perhaps it was because of this friendship and reverence for the star that allowed Ms. Bassett to make the, surprisingly, honest, passionate, and well-done "Whitney."

Instead of a biography of Ms. Houston’s entire career and life, Ms. Bassett chose to focus on her passionate, obsessive and often tumultuous relationship with her then husband Bobby Brown.  The film follows the duo from their initial meeting at the 1989 Soul Train Awards, through the end of her "The Bodyguard" tour.

Yaya DaCosta as Whitney Houston paints a portrait of a loving and beautiful woman struggling to remain present as her status as an icon swiftly overwhelms her.  Whitney was clearly a woman who struggled, as many of us do, with the duality of the desires of her head and her heart. Relative newcomer Arlen Escarpeta, while in no way favoring Bobby Brown, portrays a man in love, but still very much a product of his environment, which is evidenced by his wild ways. Only twenty years old when they initially meet, Bobby wrestles with his own demons, as he faces a career stalemate, and Whitney’s continues to soar expeditiously.

As the film tells us, at the height of their fame when they are first introduced to one another, Whitney and Bobby quickly embark on a romantic and erotic relationship. The film was especially sexy, highlighting the fact that, despite their trials and tribulations, the pair was always consumed with one another. Outside pregnancies, a miscarriage, the pressures of work, as well as drug and alcohol abuse, heighten the tension between the pair, until it seemed they could no longer function together or apart. As time wore on, their love became toxic.

After shooting "The Bodyguard" (1992) and giving birth to her daughter Bobbi Kristina, Houston desperately wanted to set her public life aside for a moment, to be a wife and mother. Houston was exceedingly aware of her public perception. She was concerned all along that her involvement with Brown would bring a lot of scrutiny to her image and life choices.

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xoxoxo Chocolate Girl in the City xoxoxox

Film Review || Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B

It has been thirteen years since Aaliyah's untimely death. A rising superstar, she had two wildly successful albums under her belt (Age Ain't Nothing But A Number (1994) and One in A Million (1996).) She also managed to secure roles in the Matrix sequels, having already shot Romeo Must Die (2000) and Queen of the Damned (2002). Only 22 years old at the time of her death, she’d already accomplished a great deal. Had she lived, I'm sure that her success would have rivaled that of our current greats. (ie: Beyonce, Rhianna)

 
There have been talks for many years about turning Aaliyah's life into a film, despite lack of support from her family and those who were closest to her. Since she was extremely young when she passed, there has been a great effort to maintain her image and her preserve her life’s work, which a film could potentially jeopardize. Despite these concerns, huge pushback, and a casting shake-up, Lifetime decided to press forward with their film on her life entitled, Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B.

I had the opportunity to screen a rough cut of the film, and I'll be honest and say that I went into it with extremely low expectations. The story follows Aaliyah Dana Haughton (Alexandra Shipp) from her failed Star Search appearance in 1989 to her passing in August 2001. The film provided a bland and general overview of Aaliyah's life, with the occasional melodramatic acting (which is often typical of Lifetime.)

The Haughton's are depicted as extremely family oriented.  Aaliyah's Uncle, Barry Hankerson, (Lyric Bent) ran Blackground Records and managed Aaliyah from the beginning of her career. Despite singing with Gladys Knight (played brilliantly by Elise Neal) who is Barry's ex-wife, Aaliyah struggles for years to get her career off the ground.  Instead she showcases her talent by performing in school talent shows and at local events.  It’s not until 1993, when Barry introduced her to R. Kelly, (Clé Bennett) that her career takes off. Fresh off his widely successful 12 Play (1993), Aaliyah goes to Chicago to work with Kelly on what would become Age Ain't Nothing But A Number (1994).

Much of the issue with having the film done at all has been how the relationship between R. Kelly and Aaliyah would be depicted. Surprisingly, Lifetime treated the relationship as well as they could have.
Kelly, (Bennett) at the top of his game, is uninterested in even hearing Aaliyah sing at first.  However, that all changes after her audition with him. At once, he's enchanted and their relationship becomes uncomfortably close moving from a mentor mentee relationship into one that is secretive and predatory in nature.

Though it's obvious in the film that Aaliyah was young, naive, and clearly enamored with Kelly's genius, the film (like society) seems to sweep his misdeeds under the rug. After her parents discover their marriage (in a uncomfortable scene both in terms of the acting ability and material), they have it swiftly annulled and Kelly fades into the background of Aaliyah's life.

Post- Kelly, the film deals with Aaliyah's second album One In A Million (1996) and her relationships with Timbaland (Izaak Stack) and Missy Elliot (Chattrisse Dolabaille); virtually unknown producers at the time. Though it was not intended to be humorous, the lack of resemblance between these actors and Tim and Missy amused me to no end. Perhaps the film would have been more worthwhile had it focused on them within the making of Million, but since the duo were hardly believable then perhaps not.

The film touches on important moments in her career including her performance at the Oscars in 1998 and ends with her relationship with Damon Dash (Anthony Grant).

The film certainly wasn’t anything spectacular; Shipp is an ok actress with a decent voice who unfortunately, can't dance.  This becomes obvious in every performance showcased in the film, as Shipp does nothing more than sway from side to side. I think it would have been better off if Lifetime had simply respected the family's wishes and scrapped the idea of a movie altogether. If we are ever going to see another film on the late Princess of R&B's life, I would hope that it’s at least a theatrical wide release, well funded, well-acted, and backed by her family. (There have been whispers of a 2015 theatrical release.)

Lifetime's “Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B” gave me exactly what I expected, which sadly isn't much at all.

Aaliyah: The Princess of R&B premieres Saturday, November 15^that 8PM on Lifetime

xoxox Chocolate Girl in the City xoxoxox