Whitney

Whitney is a documentary about the singer Whitney Houston, tracing her life and career from her rise as a pop performer to the records she set and the pressures that surrounded her later years. It draws on archival footage, performance clips and audio recordings, alongside interviews with people close to her, including family members, music industry figures and collaborators. The film also examines the gap between the public star and the private person behind her success.

Kevin Macdonald directed and wrote the film. It is the eighth of the thirteen features he has directed, following Black Sea and preceding The Mauritanian. Simon Chinn, Jonathan Chinn and Lisa Erspamer produced it, and the large credited cast of 28 includes Houston herself through archive material, her mother Cissy Houston, her ex-husband Bobby Brown, Arista Records founder Clive Davis, executive L.A. Reid and actor Kevin Costner.

Released in July 2018, the film runs 120 minutes. It earned about 1 million dollars worldwide, a modest theatrical result for a documentary. On IMDb it holds 7.3 out of 10 from roughly 8,300 votes, while on TMDB it also stands at 7.3 from about 210 votes. A critics' rating of 7.4 from 163 reviews places it slightly above both audience scores, indicating generally favourable professional reception alongside solid viewer approval.