{"id":10809,"date":"2021-03-21T14:41:10","date_gmt":"2021-03-21T14:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/?p=10809"},"modified":"2021-03-22T02:41:41","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T02:41:41","slug":"genius-aretha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/genius-aretha\/","title":{"rendered":"Genius: Aretha"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Genius: Aretha<\/p>\n

Cynthia Erivo gives her all singing classic Aretha tunes in this comprehensive study of the Queen of Soul, but the structure of this TV series is confusing. Director Anthony Hemingway bounces between her childhood in black and white to color, trying to maintain the time reference, but playing fast and loose with the continuity.<\/p>\n

This 8-part biopic is part of the Genius Series (Einstein, Picasso<\/em>) for National Geographic helmed by Producers Brian Grazer and Ron Howard. After a first National Geographic airing, the series will be shown on HULU with double-stacked episodes running 4 nights. The last episodes run on Aretha\u2019s birthday.<\/p>\n

Suzan-Lori Parks (The United States vs Billie Holiday, Native Son<\/i>) is the writer and show runner who was overseeing the production with fits and starts of production during the COVID pandemic. In a panel discussion at the SXSW Festival, Parks admitted that\u00a0 <\/span>they had to shut down several times which resulted in having to toss and rewrite some scenes to make up for days lost.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”10815″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”10763″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”10813″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]Courtney B. Vance captures well Aretha\u2019s charismatic pastor C.L. Franklin as her philandering father. He was not a good guy, but always appreciated and supported his daughter\u2019s talent. Shaian Jordan shows she has the acting and singing chops to play young Aretha. And David Cross is perfect as music producer, Jerry Wexler, who knew how to handle her adamant attitude and talent as she transitions from gospel to soul.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The series also shows how she had a talent for picking the wrong men. The scenes of Aretha with her husband, Ted (Malcolm Barrett), are painful. Barrett plays his mood swings well. One minute he\u2019s romantic and sweet, the next, mean as can be. He was mentally and physically abusive whenever she tried to do her music her own way. All she wanted was a little \u201cR-E-S-P-E-C-T.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Erivo has already proven herself extremely talented as a singer and actress. She got the part after singing \u201cAin\u2019t No Way\u201d on a Red Carpet when asked what her go-to song was. Unbeknownst to her, the video of that encounter was sent sent to Grazer and Clive Davis. That sealed it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Erivo belts out Aretha\u2019s gospel tinged soul with all she\u2019s got, which was sometimes a little more screechy than we remembered. Huge fans in our youth, we followed Aretha going to a number of her concerts in Chicago and Dallas. The last time we saw her on-stage was just after her house in Detroit had burned down. And, yes, she carried her pocketbook on stage as seen in Episode 1, to make sure the cash she collected upfront was safe by her side as she performed.\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”10814″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”10766″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”10816″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]Aretha\u2019s involvement in civil rights is addressed. She was surrounded with civil-rights activists, supporting marches and concerts for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Quoting Aretha in the series, \u201cYou got to disturb the peace when you can\u2019t get no peace.\u201d Sounds a lot like \u201cGood Trouble.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You\u2019ll discover the backstory her life that is troubling, but Aretha just kept rockin\u2019 steady to make hits and sing them her way. The story doesn\u2019t flow as easily as the music which is really the star of this series. Aretha tells it all through her songs from \u201cChain of Fools,\u201d to \u201cI Never Loved a Man (The Way I Love You), \u201cRock Steady,\u201d and on to\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cAin\u2019t No Way.\u201d Erivo does a credible job in this first production about Aretha to be released this year. Jennifer Hudson\u2019s take on Aretha is coming as a feature film. But you can never get enough of Aretha.<\/p>\n

National Geographic \u00a0 <\/span>8 episodes\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>TV-14\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

National Geographic Sunday, March 21st only.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/b>HULU starting March 22nd<\/i><\/b>[\/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qjw3-JMm5Sc” el_width=”80″ align=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Genius: Aretha Cynthia Erivo gives her all singing classic Aretha tunes in this comprehensive study of the Queen of Soul, but the structure of this TV series is confusing. Director Anthony Hemingway bounces between her childhood in black and white to color, trying to maintain the time reference, but playing fast and loose with the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10765,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10809"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10818,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10809\/revisions\/10818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}