RESPECT Is Giving Us the Aretha Franklin Glamour We Deserve

The full trailer for the Aretha Franklin biopic, RESPECT, is finally out. I gotta say, in a year full of bad movies, I’m extremely about this one.

RESPECT is a portrait of Aretha Franklin’s life starring Jennifer Hudson in the starring role, alongside Forest Whitaker, Marlon Wayans, Audra McDonald, Mary J. Blige, and even Tituss Burgess. It’s directed by Liesl Tommy—the first Black woman and first woman of color to be nominated for best director at the Tony Awards—and written by Tracey Scott Wilson, a Peabody Award-winning screenwriter who previously worked on hits like The Americans.

All in all, it seems like an all-star ensemble to make a hit biopic.

Even more exciting are the quick peeks at the costume work, which deliver the hotly-anticipated glamour one might expect from a bio about one of the music industry’s original divas. Look! Look!

Who else is excited? I’m excited.

There’s even some exceptionally edited stills to make it seem like moments in the film were captured in original black-and-white, an artistic choice I highly respect, and one I hope pays off in the finished product.

Its official release is scheduled for the tail end of summer, on August 13, 2021. I don’t mind waiting through a slog of superhero blockbusters and action-adventures, though, if I know RESPECT is waiting for everyone on the other side of it.

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