Welcome to Queerty’s latest entry in our series, Queerantined: Daily Dose. Every weekday as long as the COVID-19 pandemic has us under quarantine, we’ll release a suggested bit of gloriously queer entertainment designed to keep you from getting stir crazy in the house. Each weekend, we will also suggest a binge-able title to keep you extra engaged.
The Rockin’: What’s Love Got to Do With It
Judy. Bohemian Rhapsody. Rocketman. Music biopics have become a fad the past few years, and with good reason: audiences flock to movies where actors get to flaunt their talent in iconic roles, and have some great music to keep the story moving. To enjoy one of the best films in the genre, take a trip with this 1993 gem which dramatizes the life and career of gay icon Tina Turner. What’s Love Got to Do With It scored Oscar nominations for leads Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett, who rocketed to megastardom with their megawatt performances. Fishburne plays Ike Turner–a man better known for his wife-beating than his historic contribution to R&B–like a deranged tiger, ready to lash out at any moment. (Fishburne also sings, and sings well, on the soundtrack) Bassett manages to channel the explosive energy of Tina Turner’s stage performances as well as her distinctive speech patterns, voice and movement. If the amazing performances don’t offer enough incentive, the music should, with Turner re-recording her most iconic hits including “Nutbush City Limits,” “Fool in Love,” “Proud Mary,” and of course, the title song. Even the greatest of movies rarely rock this hard.
Streams on YouTube, VUDU and iTunes.
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Cam
Loved her as the VooDoo Queen in American Horror Story.
ScottOnEarth
YES! She was just amazing.
ScottOnEarth
As much as I love Angela – and I really do – this movie is an abomination that strays too far from the truth. If you read Tina’s first autobiography, “I, Tina,” you’d know that the movie takes too much license and Tina herself said she had no interest in seeing it.
Godabed
Yet Tina did the promos for the movie, and the extras for the DVD, I know because I watched it.
The movie, like most biopics are dramatizations of what really happened not what actually happened, which is for entertainment. Although the fight scene in the limo and her escaping was all real.
Also Ike Turner didn’t just do great things for R&B he was the first person to record Rock music, which is what was claimed in the movie. That’s a fact.
Man About Town
She said she didn’t want to see it because there was nothing to be gained by watching Ike Turner beat her up again.
jackscott
She is an amazing actress, loved her as Tina!
Kangol2
I love Angela Bassett as an actress. She evens turns bad or lesser parts into something worth watching.