‘Whitney’ documents songbird Houston’s sad life

Whitney Houston was one of the most popular singers in history. Equipped with a voice that could soar, and so beautiful she seemed almost genetically enhanced, Houston also carried with her enough self-destructive tendencies to ruin several lives. And we get only one.

The upshot was that Houston's life story reads like a pop novel, one that — when she died at age 48 in 2012 — played out sordidly in newspaper tabloid headlines such as "Queen of Pop Dead" and "Inside Whitney's Drug Den!"

Kevin Macdonald's documentary "Whitney," which opens Friday at the Magic Lantern Theater, covers all that happened in Houston's life. And the results are illuminating, if sobering, as several critics can tell you.

Carly Lewis, Globe and Mail: "The film is a sad calamity of conflicting narratives as those closest to Houston work through varying stages of honesty and denial."

Wesley Morris, New York Times: " 'Whitney' is too funereal to be a party, too sad, strange and dismaying to cheer. Yet, in its grim, guilt-inducing way, the film works, even on the occasions when it's working against itself."

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: " 'Whitney' transcends the conventions of the form, delivering a powerful reminder of the breathtaking talent she possessed and the monumental future that was squandered on the altar of selfishness and greed."

You can see it Friday at the Magic Lantern. Then go home and listen to some of Houston's songs. And wonder what might have been.