Beauty Review: Lofty Ideas & Beautiful Aesthetics Can’t Overcome Flimsy Script

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Beauty, written by Queen & Slim screenwriter Lena Waithe, is a portrait of a young Black woman balancing a career in music, love and family. What endangers her work-life balance is the insidious and parasitic nature of the music industry and fame. However, Beauty ultimately fails due to its weak script, which doesn’t provide a steady framework to tell this particular story. The film is all ideas with no substance.

Director Andrew Dosunmu mounts a handsome production, perhaps the most unmistakable charm of a film that is at odds with its ambitions. One can assume that Beauty is a not-so-subtle attempt at an unauthorized Whitney Houston biopic because particular and distinct points in Houston’s life are reinterpreted in the film. This includes her long-rumored romantic relationship with her best friend, Robin Crawford. However, Beauty is not in any way bold enough to claim that title, unlike the recent non-Celine Dion biopic Aline. To further differentiate it from that film, Beauty has an absolute seriousness to it.

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The film is scarcely aware of how unendingly dreary it is. It suffers because it attempts to paint a broad picture of the highs and lows of being a Black female artist. It is a distinct experience that has left audiences with a slew of iconic artists whose stories of mistreatment are rooted in misogynoir. It is challenging to encapsulate that experience in under two hours, especially in a satisfying way, but it can be done. However, the attempt to turn a critical lens toward this experience in Beauty is undercut by such a passive, emotionless, blank heroine.

There is no doubt that Gracie Marie Bradley, who plays the titular