There was a point in time just this year when Dionne Warwick was poised to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. At 80-years-young, she even kickstarted her Twitter account again where she instantly appealed to millennials a fraction of her age with her now iconic tweets, like this one: “The Weeknd is next. Why? It’s not even spelled correctly?”
What she was essentially saying by reigniting her own celebrity and reminding us of her timeless value, was that she is not to be forgotten. And that’s exactly what appears to be the point of the new documentary, Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over.
Had directors David Heilbroner and Dave Wooley’s film been released around the time that Warwick was more pointedly advocating to be inducted into this year’s prestigious Hall of Fame class, it would be easy to assume that the film was just part of her campaign. Why? Because it comes across as a 90-minute proposal on why people should know the singer-songwriter is so great—and not much else.
Many viewers will find that sufficient because, of course, it is extraordinary to be taken by the hand for a pristine tour of the life of one of the greatest voices to ever do it and to watch her reflect on all her career accomplishments.
In 1980, she was the first African American to win both R&B and pop Grammys in the same year for “Déjà Vu” and “I’ll Never Love This Way Again.” She also stood up for herself against racists when performing the Chitlin’ Circuit early in her career — though the documentary awkwardly shows this as it shoehorns contemporary photos of Black Lives Matter protests that are entirely unnecessary, especially given the swath of images collected for the film.
Warwick donated all the proceeds for “That’s What Friends are For,” an estimated tens of millions of dollars, to AIDS research and even confronted Snoop Dogg and his boys about his misogynistic lyrics at her own house. The rapper, who is among many luminaries—the staggering list includes Alicia Keys, Elton John, Glady Knight, Carlos Santana, Bill Clinton and Olivia Newton-John—interviewed giving Warwick her flowers in the documentary, even said, “We got out-gangsta’ed that day.”
But there is no question that Warwick was and is an essential icon, even if the Hall of Fame has yet to recognize it. What has largely remained a mystery is the woman behind the music, behind the activism and behind her enormously talented family which includes her cousin, the late Whitney Houston. Don’t Make Me Over skims over elements of her life, like her two-week marriage to William Elliott. “We got a Mexican divorce,” she stated in the film. Then, two years later, she ended up remarrying him and bearing their two sons, Damon and David, who were also interviewed in the film—glowing about their loving mother.
The film also glossed over Warwick’s time on the Psychic Friends Network with which she became synonymous in the 90s. Her fans of a certain age would certainly be familiar with this era of her celebrity—and maybe even this era alone. She filed for bankruptcy while, as her friend Gloria Estefan put it in this documentary, refusing to accept any royalties for “That’s What Friends are For,” her biggest money-making song.
At one point in 1991, Warwick’s own charity was reportedly bouncing checks. So, where was the money really going?
Don’t Make Me Over didn’t really address any of that. In fact, Heilbroner and Wooley just move forward to other affairs along Warwick’s yellow brick road. When her sons spoke in the film, they said that everyone makes mistakes, but Warwick’s were exacerbated because she’s a celebrity. That’s a totally fair statement on which the film didn’t bother to expand. By its end, Warwick was feted by amfAR, who she’s supported for several decades. The organization’s CEO, Kevin Robert Frost, validated how much of a defender of the cause she has been in a rousing speech.
The firm was a very tidy portrait of a woman who remains so elusive, even after Houston’s death nearly brought her to her knees. “I miss her terribly,” she said in the documentary. Nearly 11 years after her autobiography, My Life as I See It, it seemed that Warwick wasn’t entirely comfortable letting her audience in once again. And she seemed content with the fact that people are just going to say and write what they want to. “As long as you spell my name right,” she said with a satisfied smile.
Just don’t dismiss how much she’s given to music, especially when it comes to next year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame list, Don’t Make Me Over seemed to reiterate. Here’s hoping for that.
Have you subscribed to theGrio’s “Dear Culture” podcast? Download our newest episodes now!
TheGrio is now on Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku. Download theGrio.com today!