Can I Be Me plays out like a tragedy of the most cinematic kind.

| Dec 6, 2023

If its grip on important facts is slippery, Whitney: Can I Be Me gives a fascinating look at the making of a popstar before the age of social media.

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

Whitney. "Can I Be Me provides a compelling portrait of a supreme talent isolated by fame, dysfunctional relationships and a crushing drug habit, slowly diminished by the same qualities that originally made her a superstar.

| Nov 25, 2019

An uncharismatic documentary featuring many charismatic people, Whitney is basically watchable but hampered by an inability to push far enough.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Mar 2, 2019

It's surprising how little Broomfield inserts himself into the narrative...[he] is respectful and Crawford is only present in old footage...

| Nov 13, 2018

By the film's end, truthfully, no greater insight has been extracted as to who this strangely anomalous superstar really was.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 3, 2018

A sympathetic backstage documentary on the rise and fall of renown African-American singer Whitney Houston.

| Original Score: B | Aug 6, 2018

A heartbreaking documentary...Crawford appears in the documentary herself, and hearing her speak about Houston alleviates any concern; it's clear you are watching someone who really did love the celebrated vocalist.

| Mar 28, 2018

Music documentaries often peddle the myth that suffering is the hallmark of a great artist, and redemption always lies on the other side of hardship. Whitney: Can I Be Me, on the other hand, is a simple tragedy.

| Dec 19, 2017

What Asif Kapadia's Amy did for the tragic story of Amy Winehouse, now Nick Broomfield and Rudi Dolezal's Whitney: Can I Be Me does for Whitney Houston.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 9, 2017

Whitney lets us know: The demand for sanitized, postracial soothsaying from black stars as the price for success is more than detrimental. It will slowly, softly kill you.

| Sep 26, 2017

The film is far from prurient.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 6, 2017

Whitney Houston's majestic voice sadly takes second place to her baleful decline.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 6, 2017

While the documentary offers strong concert performances and an array of opinions on her enormous talent and tragic demise from those in her band, her entourage, friends and family, it contains no major revelations.

| Original Score: 7.8/10 | Aug 25, 2017

By the end ... you won't feel you know anything new about Houston's life. "Can I Be Me" just raises questions.

| Aug 24, 2017

It crafts a heartbreaking narrative through found footage, including never-before-seen interviews, performances and clips that address everything from her intimate relationship with best friend Robyn Crawford to her tumultuous marriage to Bobby Brown.

| Aug 18, 2017

Whitney itself operates on two levels -- delivering another cautionary tale about the price of fame, but also a tribute to a voice so big and buoyant that it continues to echo long after her death.

| Aug 18, 2017

As is often the case in documentaries like this, absorbing all those details as part of one, tightly edited story gives them an impact they lack when digested in individual pieces over time.

| Aug 18, 2017

It's no surprise that Nick Broomfield finds little use for the moments of unabashed triumphalism in Houston's life, as he's doggedly fixated on the humiliating swan dive.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Aug 18, 2017

A surprisingly conventional, dutifully respectful behind-the-scenes portrait of Whitney Houston's rise and struggles with fame and drugs before her death at 48.

| Aug 17, 2017