Darren Grant

(On TV, January 2021) I watched quite a bit of Wendy Williams’ show for a few years when I was married (“How you doin’?”), and her oversized personality is enough to make Wendy Williams: The Movie sound like an interesting topic. Even casual Williams fans know quite a bit about her struggles—candid honesty has been one of her trademarks for a long time, and the biography illuminates what we’ve known or suspected. Everyone should note that this Lifetime biography is practically a Williams vanity project: Produced by her own production company and presenting the story as explicitly narrated by Williams (who closes the film by appearing on-screen to talk to the viewers), the film presents Williams as being right even when she’s behaving badly or being done dirty: Body issues from childhood spurred on by her parents; a date rape that leaves her more determined than even to forge her own way ahead; cocaine addition kicked in an instant after realizing it didn’t do much for her; the discovery of her husband’s double life that gives her the excuse to behave like the spurned heroine of her own movie… it’s also a film made for Williams fans, with very little second-guessing allowed. Even a cursory recall of Williams’ various controversies (Despite her intelligence, Williams has said a lot of outrageous stuff over the years and some of it was incredibly stupid) is enough to remind us that a lot goes unsaid or unaddressed in this “tell-all” biofiction. Ciera Payton gets plenty of praise for playing Williams despite not looking all that much like her—but then who else does?—while director Darren Grant gets things moving within the confines of a TV movie’s budget and time constraints. The narrative is too raw on the drugs, rape and betrayal side to qualify as fluff entertainment, but viewers are going to be reminded from beginning to end that this is Wendy Williams as seen by Wendy Williams, which may not always be the most interesting angle.