For the past several months, the Judiciary Report
warned against the Lifetime network making a movie on the life of
the late R&B star, Aaliyah, who died in a tragic plane crash in
2001. For months I’d slammed the choices of announced actors cast in
various roles in the biopic, based on pre-release items released by
Lifetime. I also expressed concern that Lifetime and the people they
hired for the biopic would damage Aaliyah’s legacy and not tell her
story in the right way. And sure enough, they didn’t, as the
storyline was all wrong.
This past Saturday, Lifetime debuted their biopic
“Aaliyah: The Princess Of R&B” to scorn, contempt, complaints and
anger from audiences, who took to social networking to voice their
disapproval and disgust of the poorly written and made biopic.
Producer, Wendy Williams, who knows nothing about filmmaking, was
slammed just as much as Lifetime for this mockery of a film.
Aaliyah
Actress, Alexandra Shipp, was supposed to resemble
Aaliyah, but looked more like rapper Da Brat. Shipp tried but she
didn’t get Aaliyah right. The facial expressions, laughter and
nuances of the character were not correct. Missy Elliot, Timbaland
and Damon Dash were poorly cast as well, drawing nothing but insults
on social networking, via the public slamming Wendy Williams and
Lifetime.
The film tried to make songwriter/producer, R.
Kelly, look decent, when his behavior was anything but. R Kelly
began having sex with Aaliyah when she was 14-years-old and he
26-years of age. “Aaliyah: The Princess Of R&B” tried to turn it
into some torn love story, when it was statutory rape and the sexual
exploitation of a minor. They made Aaliyah look bad, like she was
this bold woman going after R Kelly and he was some shy, innocent
wallflower being seduced by her charms, but trying to resist.
Alexandra Shipp as Aaliyah
She was a 14-year-old girl and he a grown man headed
for age 30. R Kelly married Aaliyah in Chicago when she was 15 and
he 27. A fake ID was used that falsely stated she was 18. Whose idea
do you think that was to do this and who do you really think
procured the fake ID. It certainly wasn’t the 15-year-old girl being
taken advantage of by a grown man.
The fact of the matter is R Kelly has a problem. He
is a sexual predator, who has preyed on several underage girls and
repeatedly had sex with them, some as young as age 12. He strung
them along, manipulating and using them for sex, while telling them
he’d make them stars like underage Aaliyah. Sadly, some of these
girls committed suicide, citing all the sick things he’d done to
them and made them do to him and other underage girls during
threesomes. R Kelly is a man who was penetrating and urinating on
underage girls for sexual gratification. How he got portrayed as
some shrinking violet in “Aaliyah: The Princess Of R&B” is a
mystery.
Alexandra Shipp as Aaliyah
“Aaliyah: The Princess Of R&B” has devalued
Aaliyah’s legacy, as nothing cheesy and chintzy was ever attached to
her name until this substandard, tabloid styled biopic. Aaliyah had
beautiful, well-recorded songs such as “The One I Gave My Heart To”
“Journey To The Past” “At Your Best” and “One In A Million.” She had
catchy mega dance hits such as "Are You That Somebody" and "Try
Again." Aaliyah was also a very good dancer and an engaging actress.
However, the music in
“Aaliyah: The Princess Of R&B”
was bad and cheesy, especially the “Move Your Body” number that was
written for the project, as her family refused to grant Lifetime
clearance to use her music. “Move Your Body” doesn’t even fit the
time period and awkwardly sped up in the middle of the song like
someone lost control of a live tape.
"Aaliyah: The Princess Of R&B"
“Aaliyah: The Princess Of R&B” also showed Aaliyah
hitting her father on the chest when he told her in the presence of
R Kelly that their illegal marriage will be annulled (it was and
Aaliyah and her parents sued to have the records sealed). Lifetime
was not there during this moment of her life. Therefore, why did
they add something so outrageous and defamatory, as to showing her
lunging at her dad and striking him on the chest. Why did they put
that in the movie.
Audiences who posted on Twitter were angered by the
fact they kept pronouncing Aaliyah's name wrong in the film. People
were also offended that producer, Wendy Williams, tweeted her
favorite Aailyah song is "Let Me Know" when the correct song title
is "At Your Best" which is a remake of the Isley Brothers' classic.
They were clearly not equipped to make this film and severely out of
their depth.
After the movie aired a Twitter user posted photos of the
actors and the actual people which highlights the bad casting
“Aaliyah: The Princess Of R&B” left out half of
Aaliyah’s story and was largely fictional. The people who made the
film did not know filmmaking, Aaliyah's life story or what was truly
going on behind the scenes in the industry at the time of the
scandal, concerning her being manipulated and used by R Kelly. The
biopic created fictional elements that were never there in real life
and worst of all tried to make a pedophile look like a man who tried
to do right by a young girl.
The line in the film featuring R Kelly stating, “We
were made for each other otherwise God wouldn’t have put you in my
path” was insane. God did not put Aaliyah in R Kelly’s path for him
to sexually exploit, manipulate and brainwash an underage minor. She
was young, trusting, impressionable and naïve, as girls are at that
age. He took advantage of that. He sinned against her.
Aaliyah never had a song entitled "Let Me Know." The song
Williams is trying to pull out the air and can't name is "At Your
Best."
Biopics need to be done with care. The Jacksons
mini-series was a great biopic. It was very engaging and became a
classic. The Temptations were before my time, but I grew up on their
music because of my dad. Therefore, to see their biopic so well
done, with strong screenplay writing, great costumes and touching,
believable acting from gifted actors, was great.
The Selena biopic looked authentic and was very
moving. I cried at the end of the film. “What’s Love Got To Do With
It” was a stunning and shocking biopic on the life of singer Tina
Turner (that movie made me so mad I wanted to punch Ike Turner LOL).
However, Aaliyah’s life had all the elements for a stunning movie
retelling of actual events, but Lifetime and Wendy Williams messed
it up with “Aaliyah: The Princess Of R&B.”
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