Whitney – Can I Be Me (2017) Blu-ray

There’s little riper for a heartstring-plucking documentary than the life of a beloved star cut tragically short. In British filmmaker Nick Broomfield’s Whitney ‘Can I Be Me’, he paints a poignant picture but struggles to get to the heart of his subject.

This is ironic, as the title of the film is a reference to Whitney Houston’s own assertion that she commits a lot of time to being what other people want her to be: "Can I be me, now?" At one point, an interviewer asks how she wants to be remembered. In her typically disarming style – a deft marriage of thoughtful authenticity and practised evasion – Houston retorts that it surely doesn’t matter as people will just remember her as they want to. It’s an insightful moment into her personality but also acts as a pointed critique of a film attempting to piece together a portrait from the suppositions and recollections of a variety of friends and colleagues.

Starring: Whitney Houston, Bobbi Kristina Brown, Bobby Brown, Robyn Crawford, John Russell Houston Jr., Cissy Houston

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l10DRf4A2so

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Et8hmifmhk