Synopsis
The rise of Aretha Franklin’s career from a child singing in her father’s church’s choir to her international superstardom.
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Cast
- Jennifer HudsonAretha Franklin
- Forest WhitakerC. L. Franklin
- Marlon WayansTed White
- Audra McDonaldBarbara Franklin
- Mary J. BligeDinah Washington
- Marc MaronJerry Wexler
- Tituss BurgessReverend Dr. James Cleveland
- Saycon SengblohErma Franklin
- Hailey KilgoreCarolyn Franklin
- Tate DonovanJohn Hammond
Recommendations
- 100
San Francisco Chronicle
Respect has everything you could hope for in a musical biopic. It has a good story and great songs and, best of all, it has someone in the lead role who can put those songs over. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
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. The ageless music, of course, is the galvanizing force, but it’s the personal struggle behind it that makes the story so affecting. - 75
Movie Nation
Stately as it is, Respect never quite becomes a “great film,” but Hudson, Whitaker, McDonald, Burgess and Maron ensure it’s never less than an entertaining one, a musical biography that gives the Queen of Soul her royal due. - 70
Variety
Though Respect can feel a little soft in the drama department, it delivers the added pleasure of hearing Hudson re-create Franklin’s key songs, from the early jazz standards she covered for Columbia to her reinvention of the Otis Redding single that lends the film its name. - 65
TheWrap
Even when the movie stumbles, Hudson’s bravura performance — and those extraordinary songs — steady its soul. - 63
Slant Magazine
When Jennifer Hudson is singing her heart out, not so much approximating Aretha’s voice as channeling her soul, the effect is transportive. - 50
IndieWire
So much of Respect is about Aretha wanting more — and so desiring to work for it — and it’s disheartening that this well-meaning exploration of her legacy seems doomed to inspire that same hunger in its audience. - 50
Screen Daily
There’s no question that director Liesl Tommy and star Jennifer Hudson have approached this project with reverence, hoping to highlight the late singer’s importance both as a cultural figure and a symbol of her era. But the cliches that usually attend such biopics — specifically, the need to simplify an individual’s demons and traumas into easily digestible dramatic beats — are especially frustrating here, leaving this overly earnest picture lacking the vibrancy of its dynamic subject.
