The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies Of Gospel, Lifetime’s biopic

In the Clark sisters’ home, Mama Clark considers the word “easy” a swear. “We don’t do easy,” she explains to her daughters after waking them up at three in the morning to record a song the Lord sent her in a dream. “We do excellence.” Thus, The Clark Sisters: The First Ladies Of Gospel, Lifetime’s biopic of the women who brought gospel music to the mainstream, begins. Director Christine Swanson built a career on making moving biopics for television, including Love Under New Management: The Miki Howard Story, which she filmed for TV One. Swanson presents Camille Tucker’s script as the moving struggle of five women working together to make their mother’s dream come true. Unfortunately, trying to tell six individual stories over a 50-year span in an hour and a half proves too tall a mountain to climb.

There’s a lot to love about the film, including Tucker’s dialogue, which is aces. The middle American Black mama one-liners cut two ways, deep wisdom or flaming insult. “‘Sorry’ can’t buy one shoe,” and “All I gotta do is stay Black and die,” ring authentic in of the mouths of mothers and daughters who live and work together. The film is beautifully shot by Jason Tan, who ensures the Black American church—with its many varieties, from old brick landmarks and modern cement simplicity—is magnificently portrayed. The music, it should go without saying, is spectacular: Gospel lovers can rejoice, for the songs are plentiful. But it’s a singular performance that makes this movie sing.