News of the shocking revelations in “Whitney” quickly went viral early Thursday morning, once the first Cannes Film Festival screening of Kevin Macdonald’s wide-ranging bio-documentary about Whitney Houston let out. The film, made with the full authorization of her family, revealed that the departed singer had been victim of childhood sexual abuse at the hand of her cousin, the late vocalist Dee Dee Warwick.
And yet watching Macdonald’s broad-view documentary at the first press screening on Thursday morning, knowing the bombshells in store, actually made for somewhat richer and more engaging experience. Because we aren’t sideswiped by the late-in-film reveal, we’re better able to recognize the different ways Macdonald alludes to it, pointing towards it at different points in time.