Get On Up

This review may contain spoilers!

This film's going to go down in history as the film that killed the funk. I would give Get On Up a 4.5/10.

I suppose a biopic about a famous musician has to have very well done music, so let's put that up there to begin with: Film. Music. Good. Also the cinematography and editing between flashbacks and moments within scene was incredibly well done; very smooth and effective with some truly harrowing shots.

Dan Aykroyd, who played Ben Bart, was just incredible; this incredibly funny blundering man who wound up be lead through scenes by James Brown was brilliantly done. Viola Davis, who played Susie Brown, had one of the darkest and arguably hardest roles to play and she excelled in her role as an abused mother trapped in an awful life. Octavia Spencer, who played Aunt Honey, had so much power in her role; she hit the screen with this mother figure image and she owned her time onscreen.

It was Nelsan Ellis, who played Bobby Byrd, that really shined in this film. Ellis created a supporting role that you really felt for. Dragging himself behind Brown's shadow for the entire film that the climatic split between the two friends became one of the best scenes in the film.

This film did the James Brown story poorly. The use of flashback and fourth wall breaking really let this entire film down and forcefully threw and audience member out of the experience. It was confusing and had no sense of good storytelling to it.

Chadwick Boseman, who played James Brown, was not a good leading actor; his performance was all over the place and you couldn't understand every second sentence he said. Lennie James, who played Joe Brown, excelled at playing the most two dimensional father figure role I have ever seen; he needed a lot more work if he wanted his character to actually feel like one. Jill Scott, who played DeeDee Brown, wasn't great; a performance that felt dead as soon as it was put onscreen.