Get on Up, James Brown: une épopée américaine

"You can't make everybody happy and still stay on top." What do you get when you take a young black man growing up in the segregated south abandoned by his mother and raised by his grandmother in a brothel add in a desire to succeed at all costs and toss in more soul and funk than you can handle. The answer…you get the Godfather of Soul…James Brown. I love true story movies and ones that I know a little about are my favorite. Like most people my age my first introduction to James Brown was in Rocky 4. I have liked his music but knew very little about his life. I can't speak to how accurate the movie is but what I can say is the Chadwick Boseman did an amazing job. The best part of the music bio-pics hasn't been the actual movie itself but the acting. Jamie Foxx, Joaquin Phoenix and now Chadwick Boseman. They all inhabit the characters and that is the most exciting and interesting aspect of the movie. You feel like your watching the actual events and not a recreation. Overall, an OK movie that James Brown fans will love but the reason to watch is for Boseman's portrayal. I give this a B.

The movie starts by jumping around James Brown (Chadwick Boseman)'s life. As a boy, his mother ran off and his father is abusive. He's also a handful. He gets imprisoned for stealing a suit. Bobby Byrd (Nelsan Ellis) meets him while performing a gospel in prison. Bobby helps him get out of prison. They become The Famous Flames after jumping up on stage while Little Richard is on break.

Much of the praise centers on Chadwick Boseman's performance. He does a nice performance in all aspects of the character. It's not exactly perfect mimicry. It's more about the spirit of the performance. There is a power about James Brown that isn't exactly at the same level. The plot is basic modern biopic structure. James Brown is simply a womanizing driven pre-destine persona that is build by the troubles in his life. I would have liked a more complex character with more imaginative originality. The best drama centers around the relationship between James Brown and Bobby Byrd. Of course, there is the great music. That is a given for a James Brown biopic.

Chadwick Boseman is James Brown as he recreates his evolution as a performer in exhaustive dimension and magnitude. The raw and charismatic excitement of Brown's presence are all here. This shows dedication and natural ability as Boseman reminds us of a heritage that music cannot deny and a story that needs to be told again and again as Brown's influence continues to mesmerize us when we hear him. The entire cast were soulful and talented. Viola Davis was very moving as Brown's mother who had abandoned him as a young child and we sense the deep sorrow and loss that Brown must have endured and helps us understand his determination and inner fire as he himself catches hold of his spiritual connection to source and allows his musical genius to take hold of him and us. The words and messages in the songs that Brown wrote may at times seem simplistic but true as he sings them with such knowing, a man who has experienced life in all its dimensions.

While it is in no way a perfect film, GET ON UP succeeds largely due to Chadwick Boseman's transcendent performance as the "hardest working man in show business," James Brown. Among the positive elements (Chadwick Boseman aside), I liked the non-linear approach to the story which differentiated it from a lot of the other biopics that I've seen. I thought it was fairly creative to have the story jump around in a way that suggests a stream-of-consciousness approach to recounting one's life. Each significant event triggers other memories, and despite how disorienting it is at first, by the end I was totally used to it.

There were also some other interesting choices made, like having the young actor portraying James Brown as a child replace Chadwick Boseman in a pivotal moment late in the film for a couple of shots. And of course, Chadwick Boseman completely immersed himself in the role, to the point that I often forgot I was watching an actor instead of James Brown himself. Of course, they used James Brown's real voice instead of having Boseman sing, but the way in which he transformed himself and the physicality he brought to the role was just amazing. Another interesting choice was having Boseman break the fourth wall occasionally to narrate parts of his own story and give his perspective on different events.

That being said, not everything was as good as it could have been. Despite Boseman's awesome performance, at times the film felt like more of a greatest hits compilation than a straightforward story, the non-linear aspect aside. It also glossed over some important aspects of the character of James Brown. There was only one scene in which any domestic violence was hinted at, when there was undoubtedly a lot more. I'm not saying that there should have been a lot, but it would have been more honest to address this. I also feel like the relationship with his absentee parents wasn't addressed as fully as it could have been, considering how it affected the man he became. Still, one advantage of the non-linear structure was the placement of a scene with his mother that occurs earlier in his career, but his placed towards the end of the film for emotional impact. A little manipulative? Maybe, but I don't mind being emotionally jerked around by a movie once in a while.

All things considered, the filmmakers did a lot to make this stand out from all of the other biopics out there, even if it does treat its subject with kid gloves and goes on a little longer than I would have liked. Still, Chadwick Boseman's performance alone is enough to recommend this film, and there's so much great music in it that it's hard not to like.

'GET ON UP': Three and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Musical biopic about the life of James Brown. The film stars Chadwick Boseman as Brown (he also played Jackie Robinson, in the 2013 baseball drama flick '42') and it also costars Nelsan Ellis, Dan Aykroyd, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Jill Scott and Craig Robinson. It was written by Steven Baigelman and Jez and John-Henry Butterworth and directed by Tate Taylor (who also wrote and directed 'THE HELP'; which also costarred Davis, Spencer and Ellis). The movie was also co-produced by another legendary musician; Mick Jagger (who's played by Nick Eversman, briefly, in the film). I think it's a well-intentioned movie, and really well acted, but it's also not without it's flaws (some pretty noticeable ones).

The film begins, and ends, in 1993; at a show James Brown (Boseman) performed at, in front of a very large and sold-out crowd (of course). It cuts to several flashbacks, exploring Brown's life; from his poor childhood through his rise to music superstardom (and beyond). The story focuses on his relationships with his best friend, and musical partner, Bobby Byrd (Nelsan), his manager Ben Bart (Aykroyd) and his family. It shows examples of his inspirational highs, as well as his abusive, and self-absorbed, lows. It also features multiple, energetic, musical numbers throughout; Boseman did all of his own dancing and some of his own singing.

The movie features some pretty impressive performances (especially by Boseman, who's Oscar worthy in it) and it's also decently directed. It's informative (for the uneducated, at least) and inspirational, at times, as well. The film's one main flaw though, is that it tries to cram too much story into one movie; like almost all biopics do. A lot of the characters, and important elements of the film, seem underdeveloped; as a result. The movie does have a lot of great moments though; especially if you're a fan of James Brown, or music in general.

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