Directed by Tate Taylor. Written by Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth. Starring: Chadwick Boseman, Nelson Ellis, Dan Aykroyd, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer. 12A. 139 mins.
Biopics have a weird status in the film industry. Most struggle to assemble some form of narrative arc around the messy lives of the famous, but some – and only some – transcend that to become something greater. Just occasionally, a film like Tim Burton’s Ed Wood or Spike Lee’s Malcolm X comes along, proving that really can be something more to biographical films than just ‘re-telling the story’. Faced with the life of James Brown, one of the most influential – if not the most influential – figures in music, Get On Up has high expectations saddled on it from the start.
And damn, if it doesn’t deliver on them straight away. The opening is riddled with an infectious momentum, picking out two moments in Brown’s life before the inevitable jump back to the early days. An elderly, borderline delirious Brown threatens some conference-types with a shotgun for the crime of using his toilet, and a younger, successful Brown berates a pilot under fire in Vietnam, insisting that they make it to their gig for the army despite the explosions rattling the craft. Two very different moments, two very different snapshots of Brown. But immediately, two things are clear.
First: This is Chadwick Boseman’s finest hour so far. He is utterly consumed by the role, as magnetic a screen presence as you’d expect – as you’d demand – from James Brown, and if this doesn’t prove to be the (potentially Oscar-nominated) breakout role that launches him into the acting big leagues, I’ll be investing in an edible hat. The recent announcement of his casting as Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War and Black Panther’s own solo film probably means I won’t need to worry too much about that hat, but just in case.
Secondly: The Help director Tate Taylor is having an absolute blast here. Working off a screenplay from Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (the duo behind the summer’s most under-rated piece of genius, Edge of Tomorrow), his scattershot approach to chronology can sometimes make things a little jarring – following those first two scenes, the film ends up with whiplash from jumping back to the beginning, at which point it starts to meanderingly tell the story in vaguely chronological order, replete with the occasional scene from a completely different point in time. But there’s a sense of fun pervading it all that makes you want to let the film off the hook – and besides, telling the story straight would be far too obvious for a film about a man who defied the obvious. That subversive nature slips through in Brown’s winks and nods to camera – culminating in one point with his walking out of a scene while talking to Dan Aykroyd’s manager, instead opting to continue the argument with the camera. The most extreme example of its kind, that little diversion manages to overcome its oddities to help cement the concept of this being Brown’s story from Brown’s perspective, a tale – a legend – that he is spinning the audience, even if that occasionally means letting him off the hook somewhat for his less endearing activities.
The fact this review has mostly centred around the lead actor and the director is a reasonable reflection of the impression the film gives off – the supporting cast all put in excellent turns, with no noticeably flawed performances beyond the occasional ‘man with one line’ being a bit dull, and the music is – obviously – inescapably glorious, but it all keeps coming back to Brown, and Boseman’s electric performance. Looking anywhere else, noticing anyone else, is tricky. Even in those moments where Brown is being borderline malicious, sociopathic even, it’s still him you end up rooting for.
Get On Up is a clever piece of film-making, an alluring cocktail of snapshots from a true industry legend, all bound together by Boseman. Despite the time-jump-whiplash, there’s an undeniable sense of momentum, and an infectious joy that spreads throughout – making the moments where the film pulls the rug from under you all the more painful. It may not be to everyone’s taste, and it may be a tad too long, but Get On Up grabs your attention and keeps it for its entire 139 minute running time. Which is – whichever way you look at it – a pretty damn respectable achievement.
If you like this, try: The Help (2011), Twenty Feet from Stardom (2013)
Keep Running.
KZN Reviews 