Get On Up (2014)

Jack loved this bio-pic of James Brown so much he saw it twice, first with Andy and Krista and again with me, and we're all in agreement. Chadwick Boseman is superb as the Godfather of Soul, and, like director Tate Taylor's The Help, this movie has fabulous wardrobe and cars from the 1930s to the 80s. Boseman (last in these pages in Draft Day) is skinnier than Brown ever was, but otherwise perfectly portrays the mood-swinging innovator. The rest of the cast (62 credited, 29 uncredited) is great, too, notably Viola Davis (most recently in Prisoners) as Brown's mother, Octavia Spencer (last in Snowpiercer) as his aunt Honey, Nelsan Ellis (played Martin Luther King in The Butler, Henry the Waiter in The Help, and mentioned in The Soloist) as musician Bobby Byrd, and singer Jill Scott (as herself in Dave Chappelle's Block Party (2005), starred in The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (2008-09), and you can hear tracks at her website), who doesn't sing a note as Brown's wife DeeDee. Allison Janney (last in Tammy) and John Benjamin Hickey (The Ice Storm (1997), The Anniversary Party (2001), Then She Found Me (2007), 40 episodes of The Big C (2010-2013), and six of The Good Wife (2012-13), to name a few of my favorites) have a funny bit in a hotel sequence.

The script is by brothers Jez and John-Henry Butterworth (Edge of Tomorrow) and the story is credited to them and Steven Baigelman, who is now working on Miles Ahead, directed by and starring Don Cheadle as Miles Davis, currently filming.

A young actor plays a young Mick Jagger, and someone says, of the 1964 Rolling Stones, that they won't last (wink wink). Jagger acted as a producer and music producer on this movie.

Imdb lists 43 tracks and the soundtrack has twenty. Boseman does an admirable job lip-syncing to the original cuts, and there's no faking that dancing. Jack and I commented that Michael Jackson probably would not have done the moonwalk if not for James Brown, who had a most profound influence on modern pop music. You can hear clips of many of the songs from the movie at the official website. Additional music is by Thomas Newman (last scored Saving Mr. Banks) but it's not available to stream as far as I know.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics average 75% and audiences 78. Forget about them. This is really good stuff for anyone who loves this kind of music, and we feel sorry for anyone who doesn't.