Get On Up
Before last night, I knew nothing about James Brown other than that he was an entertaining entertainer who screamed a lot, did splits on the stage in outrageous funky outfits, was a bit of a lunatic, had gone on a wild car chase from the cops sometime in 1988 when I was living in Nashville, TN and married to a musicologist (me, not him) and was called The Godfather of Soul. Now I know from the wonderful, rollicking biopic that he was an incredibly complex man whose mother abandoned him to an abusive father who then abandoned him to an aunt who was the kind madam of a whorehouse, where he became greatly influenced by gospel music and morphed into the James Brown that we think we know. It's hard not to smile throughout this movie while you're nodding your head, wiggling your hips and tapping your feet, thankful that a man with so much talent can emerge from so much hardship and sorrow and make his complex mark, for better or worse, on a world that essentially remained oblivious to how he got there.
More 3-Line Movie Reviews
Begin Again
Chef
The Immigrant
Cesar Chavez
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Gloria
Labor Day
Philomena
