Director Liesl Tommy traces the formative years during which the Queen of Soul emerged from the shadow of the controlling men in her life to take decisive ownership of her magnificent voice.
to play her in a dramatic feature based on her life, and Hudson repays that act of faith by honoring the late singer’s towering legacy in. A powerful account of self-actualization spanning 20 formative years, Liesl Tommy’s biopic is also an intimate gift of love, rich in complexity, spirituality, Black pride and feminist grit rooted not in didactic speeches but in authentic experience.
A respected South African-American theater and TV director making a confident move into features, Tommy doesn’t escape the conventions of the bio-drama but she injects every scene with genuine feeling that elevates the material — as much as Hudson’s mighty pipes opened up in song. This is easily the star’s most persuasively committed screen performance since, alive not just in the musical interludes but also in the frequently combative interactions with the people closest to Aretha.
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