Get On Up
Get On Up
(2014)
A Review by Grant Kanigan
Directed by: Tate Taylor
Written by: Jez & John Henry Butterworth
and Steven Baigelman
Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Nelsan Ellis
Dan Aykroyd, Viola Davis, Craig
Robinson, Octavia Spencer
Rating: PG
Release Date: August 1st, 2014
 |
Dan Aykroyd & Chadwick Boseman in Get On Up
|
Like I discussed in my Selma review, it's extremely difficult to cover the entire lifespan of an important figure's history. Musically, it's a hit and miss game. For every Ray, there's a Walk the Line; for every 8 Mile, there's Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Thankfully, Get On Up doesn't try to conventionally approach the biopic formula. The film jumps from some of Brown's last performances to his brutally cruel childhood, to Vietnam and then to his days as a drug addict. For some, it may be jarring, but for Brown fans, it's typical, lightning fast delivery, much like his stage persona. The changes may be instantaneous, but they're in key and on time. As well, the creative risks pay off handsomely. The director chooses to have Brown break the fourth wall; continually Brown winks at the camera, asks the audience a question, and, in the most effective scene in the film, knocks his wife out, walks right up to the camera, and silently stares at the audience. The film doesn't shy away from Browns many faults, (drug and sex addiction, megalomania and domestic abuse), it shows them and then confronts the audience about their complacency in watching such acts of unwarranted violence. It's a daring, bold move that raises Get On Up above mere entertainment into biting social commentary.
These, daring, bold moves are mostly due to the script. By using a non-linear narrative that occasionally veers into meta-fiction, the writers are able to cover the most important points of Brown's life, (his musical innovations both compositionally and business wise), his most important and influential friendships, Bobby Bird and Ben Bart, (Nelsan Ellis and Dan Aykroyd, respectively), and his political importance, (Brown was responsible for preventing mass riots following the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968). With so many historically loaded and important scenes, it's a wonder that such a talented ensemble was able to fill them. Everyone is fantastic, especially Aykroyd. As Ben Bart, Aykroyd plays a caring, intelligent and central figure in Brown's life, subverting the clichéd, money-obsessed record executive. Craig Robinson, known for mostly his comedic work in Hot Tub Time Machine, The Office and This is the End, is great as a concerned and cunning band-mate to Brown. Boseman, however, is transcendent as Brown. Frenetic, frenzied and funky, Boseman embodies Brown through decades of his career. The only other role this year that stands up to Boseman's fearless performance is Eddie Redmayne's Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything.
Get On Up isn't perfect. Like James Brown himself, the film has it's faults; it doesn't tell a concrete story due to it's fragmented, stream-of-consciousness narrative, and it would have been interesting to learn more about the friends and musicians who surrounded Brown through his career. Yet, at the end of the day, it's unique, it's entertaining, and damn it if it isn't funky as hell. As a stand-alone historical piece of cinema, it's a pretty interesting film. As a musical biopic, it's one of the best in years. Do yourself a favour - Get On Up.
Grant's Rating: 4/5 Stars
Craig Robinson & Chadwick Boseman in Get On Up: "Rehearsal"
James Brown's 1968 Hit: Say It Loud - I'm Black & I'm Proud
Comments