I just need to say: Brittney is still alive. That trainwreck was not needed. Aaliyah was a victim. That trainwreck was not needed.

The mispronunciation of Aaliyah in a BIOPIC ABOUT HER just kills me.

Wendy Williams is a horrible person. Anyone who would try to repaint R. Kelly's grooming as romantic or loving is gross, problematic and exploitative. The intermission to calm down was needed. Both biopics really did forget that these were real people with thoughts, wants and motivations. I like the pared-down versions you came up with (focus on young Aaliyah before and after the loss on Star Search and a younger Britney between the Mickey Mouse Club and opening for NSync); I think they would have been vastly more interesting than whatever darts they were throwing at the walls to make these Lifetime* movies.

The fact that the R Kelly portion of the film also features a fully grown up actor playing a child, while painting the relationship as romantic and consensual, is *telling*.

I didn't know this about Zendaya until watching this and, honestly, it just makes me respect her even more as a person. The fact that she went as far as to reach out to Aaliyah's family (and even backed out when they didn't give their blessing) just shows how emotionally mature she is and how much she respects Aaliyah. She handled that with a lot of grace and I applaud her for that. Wendy Williams, on the other hand...

35:09 The way Wendell says "when YOU [15 yrs old aaliyah] bring home a 28 yrs old man" as if the child and victim in this situation was the one initiating it?????? 🤮😰

The ending clip just... sent me into shock. How can you look at someone with so much passion and talent and such a huge life story, and boil it down to ... three major events that have to do with the men in her life??? Her abuser, her father, and her boyfriend?? God that's disgusting.

That Britney biopic is so tragic. The stuff she’s had to deal with in her life, it’s no wonder she’s struggled with her mental health in the past. The way they portrayed her as a ditzy blonde bimbo is so sad, she’s iconic and they did everything they could to tear her down.

It sucks how it's so much easier to get a cheap, awful, inaccurate movie out capitalizing on a real person's suffering than it is to get a film that is truly celebratory and loving with the subject matter. I don't make a habit of watching biopics, but Rocketman is the only one I've seen where it felt appropriately honest, yet still fantastical and fun. Bohemian Rhapsody was straight up propaganda from the rest of the band trying to paint Freddie as difficult and petty.

First of all, names are your identity and I think that means it's a big detail. Second, the cover of Age Ain't Nothing But a Number literally has the pronunciation of her name on it.

I'm so glad you made a vid about this, I'm still traumatized by the Brittany Murphy biopic!!! you outdid yourself

It just makes me sad that both these very young artists were victims of the adults around them to varying degrees being predatory and dictating artistic/showbiz decisions about them- only for a studio to turn around and do the same thing by capitalizing off of their life story. Gross.

The wild thing is, that Britney/Justin dance off thing was a huge rumor in like 2003 and a lot of people claim it happened. However, of all the things to include in a movie about her life...no

Uhhh I can't believe you would say that The Temptations are the best boyband ever, when the best boyband ever is obviously Boys in Motion. They gave us their devotion!

People were upset because they kept trying to cast a biracial women as a fully Black women Aaliyah + her family wasn’t involved + plus the music wasn’t included + lifetime movies are trash 😭 they get by on people hate watching

I think one the best examples of a artist/performer biopic done right is Selena (1997). My entire family is from Corpus Christi where she lived most of her life and my parents actually interacted with her several times. My mom has always said JLo played her mannerisms/affect very close to the way she was in real life. There was always a lot of shit talking from (protective) Mexican Americans casting JLo who is Puerto Rican over casting an actual tejana woman which I always found baffling because when you watch her squint her eyes when she smiles, or laughs, or glide across the stage as she’s performing during a concert montage she BECOMES Selena.

A Whitney Houston biopic was just announced, and I’m already scared for it. If they don’t treat her with the utmost respect, I’m going to be furious. Also I think an Amy Winehouse biopic is in the making, which also scares me

I just listened to this podcast that went deep into Britney's career and it is scary how many predators she was around back then. Her managers even picked out her underwear. Yuck.

This channel reminds me of be kind rewind but focussed on 90s/2000s pop culture instead of 40s/50s/60s culture !!! Love to see it

first of all you have the most relaxing voice ever. but SECOND, these movies are objectively horrible cinematically, but I genuinely cannot fathom how they included that Aaliyah/R Kelly plot line. Absolutely sick. She was a baby. She would have been a freshman or sophomore in high school. He was almost 30 years old. HOW can you possibly frame that relationship as anything but a disgusting man grooming an innocent girl. Wendy Williams is despicable. I cannot imagine how fucking twisted you have to be to exploit their "relationship" like that. Anyway, this was an amazing video, you deserve so much more hype.

***also i forgot to put a text clarifying that the role cate was beat out for was elizabeth: the golden age because she was nominated twice that year. i’m a mistake machine 💗 1. free britney 2. free aaliyah's music 3. if you're masochistic enough to watch either of these movies, i implore you to jack sparrow that shit 💗💚

That Star Search footage is creepy how aged up Aaliyah was. It's hard to believe how young she was through everything, she was always presented more mature. You tell me early 20s is when she passed, she struck me by her presence as in her early 30s. And starting her music career essentially at 15, she was presented as someone twice her age to the point it's disgusting, other obvious factors included.

27:03 "That all that happened in 2007 and all the years leading up to it were because she was just sOO utTERly iN lOVE with JUstin TimbeRLAkE" *zooms in on Justins top ramen hair*

The actor not having to look exactly like who they’re portraying is very true!!!! JLo looks nothing like Selena but her essence (and costumes) were there

ugh , I wish aaliyah could’ve gotten the chance to tell HER story from HER pov

Aaliyah is an incredible singer who’s voices gives me chills. For those of you who don’t know, she covered the song “Journey to the Past” for the 1997 animated film Anastasia which is one of my favorite childhood movies of all time. She definitely put a twist on the song to make it an incredible counterpart to the original sung by Liz Callaway, Anya/Anastasia’s singing voice. Truly an icon!

Wendy is poison. I used to be a fan but I started to see under the sheen and I am disgusted. She stands by R.Kelly and keeps mentioning her "sit down chat" with him as if she got the cream of the crop. She disregards the trauma of black women. Exploitative does not begin to describe her. smh.

In some ways, a documentary would be preferable to a biopic, at least on paper. A documentary is supposed to take an objective view of the subject, and tell it like it is. There isn't the expectation to have a narrative that can fit into a conventional movie plot, so no overdramatization, no exaggeration or leaving out certain events or alternative "interpretations" of certain people. Just a look at the person (or band) as they were/are, what was recorded, and interviewees "candid" thoughts and recollections. However, I do know that, despite a documentary aiming to be "objective" in theory, it doesn't always work out that way. So I guess it's just pick your poison.

i remember seeing a preview for The Princess of R&B while watching tv with my mother. she, someone who has never mentioned anything related to R&B ever in her entire life, just tutted and said “Can’t they leave the poor girl alone.”

7:28 it's interesting to me that she refers to Aaliyah's mom as 'the' mother, not ' *her*' mother. It's like Aaliyah and her mother are not people?

Why were they asking biracial actresses to play Aaliyah anyway?

queen of the damned is one of my favorite movies _only_ because seeing golden Aaliyah at age 10 mesmerized me

Thank you for this, it was fantastic. I have hoped someone would comprehensively cover the Aaliyah biopic (and the R Kelly content therein) since I heard about it. I so long for the day we can stream Aaliyah and Britney without giving any money to the people who hurt them.

r kelly 🤢🤮

Wendy: Death scenes are exploitative! Also Wendy: *casually embellishes Aaliyah's life story like nothing*

She didn’t even look like Aaliyah. She looks like *Kiely Williams*.

Aaliyah and Britney Spears are beautiful souls that deserve all the respect and humanity in the world

so my only reference regarding Aaliyah was her being in Queen of the Damned (my mom loved it 🤷), but it's ridiculous that none of these people knew how to pronounce her name--or pretended to not know for shock value--when the pronunciation's literally on her album covers.

But Taron Egerton got no Oscar for Rocketman, and unlike Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman was actually good. I don't even like Elton John like that either

Zendaya chose to be Meechee instead of Aaliyah and we respect her for that.

Not enough love for The Temptations... the more y’all keep denying the talent the worse the music machine gets.

That Wendy Williams clip made me want to slap someone like wtf Wendy, what the actual f

I loathe Wendy Williams. Will never forget the day Aaliyah passed. My daughter introduced me to her music so we listened a lot, she was a stan. She cheered and I was assistant coach for her squad. We threw a pool party for them. All of the girls run in crying and screaming and my daughter runs to me saying " Mommy, Aaliyah died!" For a quick moment I wanted to think it was fake news but the chills I got all over my body told me it was truth. What a tragedy: she truly would have ended up a legend in the industry. 💔 Britney, my other daughter got me into her and I loved watching her videos and my daughter cried so much at her concert. I fell in love with her too. Followed her whole career. Hate the paps, their should be boundary laws . Hate the conservatorship and anyone with their hands in it. I'm part of #FreeBritney and I'm glad I didn't see either of these " films". I wonder if the people who hated on Aaliyah changed their perspective after R.Kelly being called out. Not that Aaliyah should have EVER taken heat for being manipulated and abused by a fking pedophile. What is WRONG with people?!? I was screaming back when it was going on that he was a fking pedophile and never understood why he didn't end up in prison. Sorry for my rambling. Helps your engagement though right? Lol. Great watch, thank you.

First of all, they didnt even have Aaliyahs familys permission nor her friends. Alexandra Shipp is very pretty but imo she really didnt look or vibe anything like her. Same with the actors. The only somewhat similar clothes, lack of plot, the romantization with Kellys crazy ass... The directors didnt even have the rights to her music. It was just a random collage of life moments rather than a story of her actual life.

Whenever someone mentions biopics I remember how good Honey Boy is but also how *nobody* saw it so thank you for validating me at 2:46

That Britney stuff is BS. We sure her dad didn't make it as support for stealing her agency as a person for what, over a decade? That looks like someone pretending only the public image was her and the best most mature side of her and what we didn't see was a much more ditzy shallow incapacitated girl. Something her dad would probably love. 🙄

Thank you for educating me on the proper pronunciation of Aaliyah's name! I didn't know that was the correct way of saying it. And as the biggest Britney stan, that "film" made me wanna punch my TV okay. We're both southern December Sagittariuses who have had bad 2007s. (That's the year I had my first attempt so I had to go to the hospital.) I relate to Britney so much about wanting freedom and to just be yourself. Britney wants to be Britney not Britney(tm). I love her so much omg. I'm sorry I went on this rant y'all. I just gotta vent about my girl.

I just can't get over that last bit of interview where she's trying to frame Aaliyah as "bringing home a 28 year old man". As if she were the problematic person in that situation. As if she was the one in control.

"yeah I called NSYNC some boy band. fight me" I loved that 😂😂😂

The worst thing about the Britney biopic is that... She's still alive and she's still dealing with the consequences of being trapped in the boxes they've kept her in for years and years.

I can't believe this channel only has 53k subscribers. Its not always a subject I come in already interested in but I have watched every video and without fail I am enthralled within 5 minutes. They are all so well made. These are some of my favorite video essays. Thank you.

so i'm from southern louisiana as well (though the region britney grew up is practically mississippi) and that poor actress' accent was truly so bad. half the time she almost sounded british to me and the clips of actual britney talking u edited in make it even more apparent. if the actor cannot do an accent well don't make them do an accent at all! or pick a better actor! love ur videos :)

i’m so glad this was recommended to me! the influx of black girls doing whatever the hell they want is so darn cool.

The actress playing Britney Spears looks more like Katherine Heigl

Also, Aaliyah had *PERSONALITY* and she really seemed to have a lot of fun too She was just getting started

I don't watch many biopics, but I remember watching Selena in theaters as a kid and falling in love with her music.Thinking back on it now, it breaks my heart a little on how it was made. Almost as soon as she was killed, many unauthorized biopics started floating around, and her family didn't want her story to be told by people who didn't know her. So they were forced to start this project not even a year after her death, and also while still in mourning. Watching it now, it is a little formulaic and has all the parts you'd expect a biopic to have. However I think it has more heart than a lot of the others.

I really liked your idea of doing a story about Aaliyah and Gladys being her mentor and binding with her in music. That would've be epic if we can get some good writers/directors working on this script ASAP. Someone please produce this

It’s crazy this biopic was the beginning of Alexandra shipp’s complimented relationship with the black community. She got a pass for this role and then came her playing storm in the new x men movies, once she got called out for it she literally have gone on so many anti black colorist tone deaf comments on twitter. Even her character in love, Simon was written in the original novel as a brown skinned black girl. That’s literally one of the major reasons why I will forever hate this Aaliyah biopic not only bc it watered down on Aaliyah’s life/career and romanticize her sexual abuse from r. Kelly, but introduce us to Alexandra shipp. Thanks Wendy Williams and lifetime 😒😒😒😒

Honestly, you are one of my favourite video essayists. You are so clear, articulate, visually engaging, and cover such unique and fascinating topics. I know you don’t want to blow up, so I don’t wish that for you, but I hope you realise how talented you are and how blessed we are for your contributions to film & entertainment discourse

the only valid biopic about a successful woman is Selena (1997) but idk who plays her like i don't know her :) absolutely loved your video btw but it took me 2 hrs to watch it lmao all the bullshit these two women had to go through got me so heated. thank you for the care and attention to detail that you put into it idk how you found the patience for all this foolishness

I actually found the Anna Nicole biopic to be one of Lifetime’s better efforts. The casting was perfect and the actors clearly did their homework, which is a lot more than can be said for many of the others!

That shout out to "Amadeus" gave me so much life. You don't even know.

did I just hear the intro to man to man ? ! 😭💖we LOVE the church of electra !

"I don't think it's always necessary to get an actor who looks exactly like the person" thank you. This is what I was saying when Zac Efron played Ted Bundy. Sebastian Stan would've been a much better choice imo, but people were like "but why? He looks nothing like him" as if Ted Bundy had these crazy unique features. He was an average looking white man, I'm sure there are tons of white me who look like him and, Zac Efron Efron can't act, so looking just like him is not the most important thing in the world. Margot Robbie looked nothing like Tonya Harding, but she played her extremely well. Angela Basset looked nothing like Tina Turner but she sure played the hell out of her. And honestly having an actor look exactly like the person they're playing throws me off and is almost distracting. I think filmmakers like to cast someone who looks just like them so that audiences will be amazed by the resemblance. I'm more amazed by the acting and the performance. The only time I have an issue is when they cast a thin person to play someone who was more heavy set or when they cast a light skin person to play someone who was dark skinned. Or casting someone of a differenct race etc.

Yikes, reminds me of when Don Shirley’s family accused the team behind Green Book of misrepresenting his life and then it won best picture

I love when my KZfaq recommended page gives me a new channel to binge. Now I know what I’m doing for the rest of the day.

It disgusts me that Aaliyah's "relationship" with R. Kelly was portrayed as consensual and romantic in that movie when that isn't the case. She was groomed and hurt by him. Just ugh. I hate it.

The parallels between Britney and Aaliyah seem to diverge the most in how different their parents were, Aaliyah's parents went up against an incredibly wealthy and powerful man in the industry during a time when no one was on their side to protect her, whereas Britney's parents have consistently exploited her and caused her emotional pain.

The best biopic I’ve ever seen was Rocketman about Elton John. It took some creative liberties but he was a producer the whole way through. Also it had some fantastic elements and was an actual musical, not just a laundry list of his biggest hits in order. It focused on hard parts of his life, but it also showed him overcoming it and becoming a kinder person (at least that’s how they frame it in the movie). It was just so creative and really unlike any biopic I’ve seen.

This is such a well researched and well put together deep dive but that intermission gave me ASMR

i could listen to Yhara talk for hours.

cool thing about watching youtube for so long is that film videos used to be "let me rip into this low hanging fruit for 28 minutes" or whatever and now its "lets take these low hanging fruit and look at as an example of the greater issues in film" and i love it

I can't even begin to thank God for this coming up in my suggestions. You're an icon, a legend and you ARE the moment. Now, c'mon now! *subscribes and hits that dangly bell that sits in the back of my throat*

“Other cigarettes...” I knew I liked you :)

She was my favorite thing about Queen of the Damned, her voice was so beautiful, so much talent

These lifetime "biopics" appear to literally be greenlit, written, casted, filmed, edited, and aired in 2 weeks

Yhara came through with the long videos!! I honestly can listen to her analysis (of anything, if we honest) for hours. Also my friends and I have noticed that full length movies that hover around 90 minutes (including ending credits) are generally trash films. That's actually one of our criteria when we do our virtual bad movie nights

As someone who was very much alive for the hight of both Aaliyah and Britney’s success [I’m 9 years younger than Aaliyah and 6 years younger than Britney] these “biopics” were disgraceful towards two of the most influential women in music.

i love the sound of your voice... it's like asmr. great video, you have a high degree of empathy and compassion that comes through when you talk about film and pop stars/celebs of the early 2000s. loving your work!

I just want you to know I did the full breathing exercise with you during that intermission. (It was very necessary*.) Well done & Thank you 🙏🏽

i love zendaya, but i don't think a mixed girl should be playing aaliyah, who is monoracially black.

When you are a hammer, everything is nails. When you are Wendy, everything is trash.

My dad was a touring musician with The Temptations in the 70's, and I was born on a day he was set to perform with them. After my mom gave birth to me, he went to work that night (not sure how I feel about that).. On stage, in front of a crowd of thousands, my birth was announced by one of the band members, while my dad was sitting behind his keyboard. Dad said that the crowd cheered upon hearing the news, and he stood up to take a bow. This story has been a family anecdote for the past 46 years, so I'm not sure how much of this is mis-remembering on my parents' part.

Oh man, these videos are so good. They're so fascinating because growing up in the 90s this was all over the place, but I was one of the edgy kids who _hated_ 90s pop. It's eye opening to hear such a human take on what I always saw as little more than predatory capitalism. You fucking rule!

Yeah you're right. I wish they would focus on a certain period of time and not their whole career. Maybe more Biopics should be mini series. Are you looking forward to the Selena minis series on Netflix?

I think my favorite Biopic is Big Eyes with Amy Adams , I don’t know how accurate it is but it’s an enjoyable movie 👌🏼

I look forward so much to every new video you post! Thank you for the quality work!

You are sooooooooo right about an actor not having to look exactly like the person they're portraying to nail it. I immediately thought of Denzel Washington in Malcolm X; they couldn't look more different, kind of the opposite of Zoe Saldana in that Denzel is darker than Malcolm was, but he captured the ESSENCE of him so well in everyway that you forget they don't even look alike and don't care. I watched the Aaliyah movie along with Black Twitter and chile was it worth it for the commentary alone. That movie was A B Y S M A L! Lifetime really is out here trying people's legacy! The Donatella Versace story, WHITNEY'S story omg the disrespect to our legend smh

The fact that I never heard of Aaliyah to this day saddens me. Her music is awesome and I'm so happy to learn about her

I love the early 2000s internet aesthetic you use for your vids man. You ever get into Cyber Stockholm Syndrome by Rina Sawayama? the vibe seems right up your alley imo

YAYYY new upload!! So excited for this as well as your Elite video, reading your twitter updates on it has been a trip

THANK YOU!! For all your videos, but this one in particular!

With the romanticization of R Kelly grooming Aaliyah, it would've worked if, for the first few scenes, it's painted as romantic and desirable. But as the relationship progresses, it should be painted as more exploitative but Aaliyah is oblivious. That seems like a good way to do it.

I thought I wasn't in the mood to watch a KZfaq video. You just changed my mind.

Wonderful video as usual and when the intermission at 21:33 happened I was really inhaling and exhaling with you 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

I wasn't aware of Lifetime biopics prior to this vid and wouldn't think to watch an essay on the topic, but your content is always entertaining and insightful. Thank you!

I love ur aesthetic. You have great style but also your videos are so well edited, thought out and topics I had no idea about you make me care about. Its clear you actually put effort in these video essays that KZfaq needs. Can't wait to see you break the 500k sub mark

Queeeeeeeeeeeen!!!!!! I’m so excited for a new video from you! (I haven’t watched it yet but I’m commenting anyway because I know it’s going to be excellent!) 😍👑🎬

i love this channel so much. it feels like youre making video essays art.

I love how much passion comes through your videos. Your critical eye, the carefully constructed intermission, and the subtle comedic interjections. Well done ✌️