Get On Up

Because I loved "Ray" and because "The Help" was really good, I made time to see "Get On Up". You can organize racism-themed movies along a feel-good/feel-sorry spectrum. Some examples of feel-good movies are "42" (also staring Chadwick Boseman) and "Remember the Titans" while an example of a film at the other end of the spectrum would be "The Butler". "Get On Up" as I see it favors the feel-sorry side because James Brown in this movie may have overcome his humble origins but was messed up on the inside not unlike his parents. The focus of the movie was on Brown's personality, not on his life or music. The film also used too many metaphors & creative ways of visual storytelling and as a result, the story of the film did not take center stage. Just like the Godfather of Soul himself, there was a great attempt to make you feel "it" but I am sorry to say that I didn't.

Non-linear films must still tell a story. Scenes from different moments in time that are intercut must relate or move the story forward. You can't have a bunch of random scenes & symbolic images and have them speak without structure. "The Social Network" for example had great story structure and won the Oscar as proof. In "Get On Up", the show opens in 1988, then cuts to Vietnam in the 60's and we end up in 1939. When we get back to 1988 at the end of the film, the subtext we were supposed to have obtained isn't there. If it is, we missed it. Much of the movie depicted Brown's personality but the scene in 1988 already established what kind of man James Brown is. We don't need the rest of the movie to tell us why he came into that 80's meeting with a gun. Another example of the non-linear plot not doing its job was that the battle royal when James was young doesn't really answer Little Richard's question to older James in the previous scene. The battle only did what the church scene had already done earlier; we saw the young protagonist receiving inspiration. When James' mother comes back, it almost felt like it was a forgotten plot hole that the filmmakers remembered that they had to resolve before the movie was over. Its appearance at the end of the show felt out of place. The screenwriters, Jez and John-Henry Butterworth, did a lot better with their previous work: "Edge of Tomorrow". While that movie had organized storytelling, "Get On Up" felt like a bunch of scenes shuffled randomly like a deck of cards. The use of chapter titles as I call them and the breaking of the fourth wall further convoluted the movie. What the filmmakers should have done was to scale down the symbolism, non-linear plot, etc. With a simpler movie, the story would have be able to do its job. The best scene in the movie was at the Boston Garden but it doesn't fit with the negativity of the rest of the movie. We like a rags-to-riches story but what audiences really like is a change of character. Accordingly in the way I see it, James didn't rise above his origins. He does bad stuff just like his father and mother did before him. Ray Charles on the other hand in his movie quit heroin.

Wayne Brady came up with a great title for James Brown's autobiography: "What The H*** Did He Say?" This opening comment has nothing to do with Chadwick Boseman's performance but the one problem this movie could not avoid was the inability to always understand the protagonist. To authentically portray James Brown, his speech would have to be inaudible at some times. Thus you have an unavoidable consequence which is distraction during the drama. When I told my dad I wanted to see this movie, he mentioned that he probably wouldn't enjoy it himself because of Brown's flamboyancy. My dad was right. I was familiar with Brown's music before seeing this but my dad already knew what kind of visual performer he was. By genuinely portraying the main character, his personality automatically causes trouble in the telling of a dramatic story. As for Boseman's work, he did very well. The voice and physicality of the character were accurate. The make-up also helped in making you believe the performance. I hope that Boseman's work on this film and "42" will lead to great roles in better movies. I liked seeing Little Richard at the start of his career in this story. With Mick Jagger acting as a producer for "Get On Up", it is obvious that they would include The Rolling Stones in the story and I liked the irony of that scene. Octavia Spencer won an Oscar for her role in "The Help" so I am not surprised that director Tate Taylor cast her and Viola Davis in this show. Spencer did really well, especially in the bedtime scene with young James. I liked seeing Dan Aykroyd in this film. Here is a fun fact: the real James Brown appeared in Aykroyd's "The Blues Brothers". I didn't find any problem with Taylor's direction of the film. I feel he recreated the time periods very well. The sound in the movie was good in that you believed that Boseman was singing much of the time but "Ray" did a better job with the sound mixing as evidenced by the Oscar that the film won.

Out of complete coincidence, I saw "Get On Up" three years to the day after seeing "The Help". "Get On Up" looks to be a box office failure because after seven weeks, the film finally made its money back ($30 million). I wasn't inspired when watching this movie. I saw an artist who cared more for his music than anything else. Even the end of the film did not portray enough repentance. The heart of the movie was on who James Brown was as a man. The movie delved too much into the abstract for my taste. "Get On Up" wasn't awful but its subject matter and screenplay did not work.

3 Stars