The film touches upon the major moments of Franklin's life, but does not coalesce into a fulfilling narrative.

| Dec 17, 2021

The film soars whenever the music takes over, as it does for large chunks of the action. But the backstage story is less exhilarating. Franklin had a life as big as her personality.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 13, 2021

[Jennifer Hudson is] a winning presence, the expertise and exuberance with which she recreates the great songs at least distinguishing Respect as a superior jukebox tribute.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 1, 2021

Hudson... manages to make Respect sing.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 12, 2021

A glossy retelling of Aretha Franklin's life that sucks out her humanity and replaces it with a convenient two-act structure.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 10, 2021

This may not be a definitive account of Franklin's life, but Hudson gives a definitive performance.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 10, 2021

Hudson is so good, in fact, so musically accomplished, that you wonder why we patted Renée Zellweger and Taron Egerton on the back for their endearing amateur imitations of Judy Garland and Elton John.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 9, 2021

It certainly dishes out nothing less than the title demands.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 9, 2021

This is a long, laborious movie whose every scene feels hackneyed at some level and which is always drifting towards its own misjudged secular gospel of simplistic salvation and life lessons learned.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 9, 2021

The music is a joy, of course, a glorious songbook recreated by Hudson's soar and flex. But her performance is as good between the tunes. And before them.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 8, 2021

Never quite blows you away but it's well cast and showcases the vocals we came to hear.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 7, 2021

Hudson sure steps up to the challenge, dazzling with the song that lends its name to the film's title

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 24, 2021

Were Hudson's performance any less persuasive, the movie-engaging enough, informative enough, sensitive enough to sustain its hundred-and-forty-five-minute span-would sink under the weight of its elisions and simplifications.

| Aug 19, 2021

Striking a balance between the two isn't easy, but at its conclusion "Respect" finds a way to bring together woman and artist in a way that does justice to both.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 16, 2021

"Respect" succeeds in doing exactly what is expected of it.

| Aug 16, 2021

The musical sequences were the highlight, but Jennifer Hudson's performance was surprisingly vapid.

| Aug 14, 2021

This movie exists in a world in which nobody realizes that Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story is out there. It hits, with total earnestness, every single musical biopic cliché.

| Aug 14, 2021

It's just a series of tropes from biopics... You wonder why they felt the need to cover such a broad expanse of her life, and tick off all the moments in it in such clichéd ways.

| Aug 14, 2021

Hudson is the perfect choice to live Aretha Franklin's story with powerful acting and vocals that sound authentic but not copied.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 14, 2021

Hudson hits all the right notes as a natural-born talent struggling to find her voice -- and power -- as a singer, a woman and an African American who deserves, and ultimately demands, respect.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 13, 2021