• Home
  • News
    • Local
    • National
    • Community Profiles
  • Sports
    • Vikings/NFL
      • All things Super Bowl 52
    • Twins/MLB
    • Timberwolves/NBA
    • Lynx/WNBA
      • 20 in 20
    • MN Wild/NHL
      • NWHL
      • College Hockey
    • Gophers/College
    • High School
  • Arts & Culture
    • Music
      • Everything Prince
    • Theater
    • Movies
    • Television
    • Books
  • Education
    • Message to Parents
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Bridging the Gap
    • Reaching Out From Within
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Cartoon
  • Go Green
  • Health
  • Legacy Editions
    • Black History Month
    • Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • Annual Graduation Celebration
    • Black Music Month
    • MSR Legacy Archives
  • Obituaries
  • Jobs
  • Legals

MSR News Online

Comprehensive news from the Twin Cities African American community

  • About
    • MSR Staff
  • Events
  • Photo Galleries
  • F.Y.I.
  • Sister Spokesman
  • Spokesman-Recorder 501(c)(3)
  • Subscribe
  • MSR Newsstand Locations

Will Get On Up get it right?

July 30, 2014 by MSR Online

Arts no chaserJames Brown a/k/a the Godfather of Soul, precursor to Prince, did not lead what you would call a wholesome life. He grew up in a shack dirt poor, lived in a brothel, went to prison at age 16 for robbery, later went to prison again for assault and battery and, throughout his career — despite insisting his band members stay clean — did drugs, abused women and, well, as the expression goes, wasn’t nothin’ nice.

On the other hand, his was, it goes without saying, one hell of a career. He was, onstage, on record and over the radio — long before MTV — celebrated, hell, worshipped as the entertainment heart and soul of grassroots Black America at its grittiest. When he released “Say It Loud (I’m Black and I’m Proud)” it immediately became the national anthem for a 1960s groundswell that saw increasing urban unrest and hailed Brown as Soul Brother No. 1.

When the film biography Get On Up hits movie theaters August 1, you can believe it will be well attended across the country. This reviewer has mixed feelings right off the bat.

The supporting cast is rock solid with Nelsan Ellis, wonderfully acerbic as Lafayette in HBO’s True Blood, playing Brown’s main man and bandleader Bobby Byrd, the marvelously versatile Jill Scott (No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, again from HBO) as his second wife DeeDee (interestingly his third wife Adrienne Rodriguez, his abuse of whom made headlines is left out of the movie) and gifted character Lennie James as his father Joe Brown. For good measure also on hand are Dan Akroyd, Aunjanue Ellis and Viola Davis.

Chadwick Boseman as James Brown in Get On Up
Chadwick Boseman as James Brown in Get On Up

If Chad Boseman, playing James Brown, is as dimensionless as he was starring in 42 as Jackie Robinson, this is going to be, just like 42, a case of superb acting succeeding despite little more than a warm body in the lead.

It’s directed by Tate Taylor whose The Help, depending who you listen to, was either a sterling tribute to Black women making a way as best they could in the 1960’s work force or a glorification of maids and mammies. It’s produced by Mick Jagger, who could in all fairness be called a White James Brown — after all, each was a flying fury at the microphone and neither one could sing a lick yet pulled it off spectacularly on the strength of fiery emotion and galvanizing charisma. One thing about which there can be little doubt. This is a film that will not come and go unnoticed.

Get On Up opens August 1 at area theaters.

 

Dwight Hobbes welcomes reader responses atP.O. Box 50357, Mpls., 55403.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare on LinkedinShare on Reddit

Filed Under: Entertainment

Follow Us On:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Youtube

FYI

Find help for domestic abuse

Find help for domestic abuse

MARPE’ (Greek for “inner healing”) supports women as they recover, heal, and thrive. No one deserves to be abused. Women dealing with domestic abuse … [Read More...]

St. Paul recognizes winners of second annual business awards

St. Paul recognizes winners of second annual business awards

  On April 5, the St. Paul City Council announced the winners of the Second Annual St. Paul Business Awards. The eight winners, and all … [Read More...]

Contact

MN Spokesman-Recorder (MSR) P.O. Box 8558, Minneapolis, MN 55408-0558 Phone: (612) 827-4021 www.spokesman-recorder.com

Company

  • About
  • MSR Staff

Subscribe

  • Home/Office Delivery
  • Newsstands

Website

  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms

Advertise

  • Print/Online Advertising

Connect

  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2018 · Magazine Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in