Get on Up

 

In memory of Chadwick Boseman 29 November 1976-28 August 2020 and Nelsan Ellis 30November 1977-8 July 2017

 

Get on Up 2014

• Director: Tate Taylor
• Seen by this director: The Girl on the Train, The Help
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Nelsan Ellis, Viola Davis, Dan Ackroyd, Lennie James, Jill Scott, Octavia Spencer
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Chadwick Boseman – Black Panther, Fringe
• Nelsan Ellis – The Butler, The Help, The Soloist, Veronica Mars, Warm Springs
• Viola Davis – Widows, End Game, Beautiful Creatures, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Solaris, Antwone Fisher, Far from Heaven, Kate & Leopold
• Dan Ackroyd – Bright Young Things, Feeling Minnesota, Driving Miss Daisy
• Lennie James – Blade Runner 2049, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Re-Told, 24 Hour Party People
• Jill Scott – Fringe, Ladies’ Nr 1 Detective Bureau
• Octavia Spencer – Snowpiercer, The Help, The Soloist, Being John Malkovich
• Why? Chadwick Boseman
• Seen: 4 September 2020      

       Jumping back and forth in time from the 80’s when the legendary James Brown is high on drugs and half-forgotten, to the 60’s when he plays in Vietnam, to the 30’s when he’s a child with a loving then absent mother (Davis) and abusive father (James), back to the 60’s when his music starts taking off.

       He grows up in a brothel and a gospel music church, ending up in jail where he meets Bobby Byrd (Ellis), his friend and fellow musician for decades.

       The portrait of the man James Brown is not a pretty one but the portrait of the phenomenon James Brown, the music giant, is powerful. The megalomaniac who treats family, friends and colleagues like dirt, the public figure torn between Huey P Newton and Lyndon B Johnson complicate the picture. Boseman not only plays all these James Brown. He is James Brown. King T’Challa is nowhere to be seen.

       The only weaknesses are some key scenes that are so short that they’re easy to miss. A few more minutes wouldn’t have hurt the film.

 

4 1/2 * of 5