Launching at TIFF is the definitive documentary of one of the most iconic singers of all time, Dionne Warwick. ‘Heartbreaker’, ‘I Will Never Love This Way Again’, ‘Walk On By’, just three of the dozens of memorable tracks recorded by the artist in her glittering six-decade career. All are covered in this glossy doc, an brilliantly told insight into the life of one of the true greats.
Everyone from Elton John to Smokey Robinson to Snoop Dogg, as well as Clive Davis, Quincy Jones and even Bill Clinton, among many others, offer insights through talking heads, as well, of course as Warwick herself, our main guide through proceedings. Then there is Burt Bacharach who speaks of discovering the young singer with Hal David. It’s completely engrossing stuff with every aspect of Warwick’s professional and personal life touched upon – impressive with a mere 95 minute running time – from Warwick’s early years, touring with Sam Cooke in the south at the height of segregation; early work with Bacharach through to the Arista signing in the late ’70s/ The film touches upon her marriage, children – her famous relatives, and of course her activism around AIDS in the 1980s and for the LGBTQ community.
We’re in the middle of a bit of a resurgence of the popularity of the music documentary with the Bee Gees, Tina Turner and Whitney Houston, amongst others, getting high profile features of the past few years. Even The Beatles will get their own multi-part series from Peter Jackson later in the year. Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over ranks up there with the best of them – a hugely involving piece that will be an absolute must for fans of the artist, and even for new fans – notably the hundreds of thousands who follow the ‘Queen of Twitter’ online.
She’s very candid here, no subject seemingly off limits, and the filmmakers even touch upon her more recent troubles with bankruptcy before ending on the high note of her induction onto the Apollo hall of fame outside the famous theatre and music venue in Harlem. A particular stand-out though is her meeting with Snoop Dogg and his fellow ‘West Coast’ rappers – Tupac and Suge Knight reportedly included – who were summoned to her Beverly Hills home as they were rising to fame to explain their reasoning for using such coarse language and misogyny in their lyrics. She certainly knocked them down a peg or two. Another is the coverage of the recording of the iconic multi-artist track “That’s What Friends Are For” – you know it – which was the charity record that would go on to raise millions for AIDS research.
I was hugely engrossed throughout Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over. It is very watchable, both entertaining and touching through expert construction and research into the archives to resurface the very best footage of the artist from over the years. A delight from start to finish.
Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over was reviewed at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival.
Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over
Summary
An involving, brief, though thorough account of one of the most iconic and influential singers of our time.
