Metacritic reviews

Questlove confronts the life and legacy of Sly Stone, investigates it, holds it up to the light, tears it apart, and puts it back together like the bravura mixmaster he is.

Melodically vital and bracingly frank, Questlove’s uptempo Sundance documentary “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)” is a sonic kick to the soul.

It’s a music doc that takes its music-doc responsibilities seriously.

Questlove shapes an engaging narrative that charts Stone’s undulating career.

You walk out of Sly Lives! feeling like you’ve genuinely learned something, but you also walk out exhilarated.

Thompson reveals his deep love for this musician by looking past the rock-doc cliches, searching for the soul of a man who put every ounce of it into his songs.

Considering how electric Stone’s work and life are, SLY LIVES! more than makes up for its standard documentary style through Stone’s gripping story, and Questlove’s exploration of the revolutionary music.

Sly Lives! pays appropriate credit to its subject’s greatness by not devolving into pity even after depicting Stone at his lowest points.

Sly Lives! may not provide definitive answers, but the fact that it even asks those questions puts it a cut above most films in its genre.

As much as Questlove probes his many interviewees with questions about the expectations and responsibility that comes with “Black genius,” his film doesn’t live up to the ambitious framework he puts forth.