i've been meaning to watch this ever since chadwick boseman passed away, and with mlk jr's birthday coming up, it seemed like an ideal time. unfortunately, this isn't the film you're going to want to rewatch for either a boseman tribute or a tribute to james brown's life. don't get me wrong, boseman gives one helluva performance here. i don't think i'm totally sold on it, but nobody can say he didn't put his all into it. i blame the director, tate taylor, for not knowing when to reel him in, or not using those takes. boseman's version of brown is a hyperbolic dancer and singer, but also has his speaking inflections turned up to eleven. at the best of times, it makes you wish he was miked better, or subtitled. at the worst of times, he seems to be channeling a young chris rock's standup voice. boseman's general performance is quite good, and his dancing is fantastic, but the real star is the hair & makeup team. between prosthetics and other tricks, boseman is almost unrecognizable for most of the film. it's an amazing transformation that will probably keep fans of his riveted. unfortunately, there's so much more to the film than just boseman. so much more. the first film of tate taylor's that i saw was the girl on the train, which i honestly hated. i blamed the script, but i should have known better because i loved gone girl, which was simply handled by a better director. i then saw the help (recently too!) not realizing it was the same director. many of the same problems there, but it's a very well-meaning film and saved by the performances and events. and then comes this film, which taylor made in between. it's a perfect bridge in that it has most of the problems of girl on the train, and some of the redeeming qualities of the help. the big problem with taylor's directing is that he seems to think "i may never get to make another film after this...so i'm going to make all the movies!" his tone management is all over the place, the story is bloated and unfocused, and the themes and message of each film get lost in extraneous crap that should be cut. the scenes are fine on their own, but they just don't serve the story. here, the major culprits are various cameos by musicians and famous figures during james brown's life, none of which go much of anywhere. there's a scene with band members lusting over yvonne fair, a singer who would become famous and also mother to one of brown's children...but here she's just some other woman stomping through, lost in the shuffle of a constantly shifting chronology. there's a couple scenes with little richard (played like the king of queens by brandon smith), but that relationship gets dropped...even though in real life brown went on the road masquerading as richard when he was too busy! there's a nonsense cameo by a young mick jagger, seemingly just because he's one of the film's producers. scenes with lbj, frankie avalon, allison janney as some random racist tourist, and many more just fill up space and distract from the main story. and the main story is great! or it should be. brown lived a hell of a life, but we only get snippets. taylor insists on cutting rapidly between different time periods, sometimes within the same take, and almost never for any dramatic purpose. the scenes don't thematically match, and aren't related through the narrative. there's absolutely no reason to play them in the chosen chronology other than a seeming lack of confidence in the material. the story and performances are plenty enough to keep an audience gripped without all the tricks, but taylor seems to think fractured narratives will make the film cooler, like tarantino, man. or having the characters break the fourth wall and narrate to the camera makes them like guy ritchie, scouser! or suddenly switching the actors to be played by younger or older versions of themselves within a scene...check it out: i can use magical realism like the big boy directors! the film tries to be everything and so commits to nothing. it's a musical that breaks the musical moments to have characters distance themselves from the real situations. it's a drama that avoids building dramatic momentum by giving you key information after the events it already impacted. it's a biopic that teaches you little about brown's life because the chronology is so fractured and it leaves so much out. like the nwa-sanctioned self-biopic straight outta compton, or the elton john self-produced rocketman, the film gives you just enough dirt on brown to pretend it's fair and balanced. perhaps because it's a white director, writers, editor, and cinematographer, nobody felt qualified to be more critical. but there's plenty to criticize. there's only one incident of illegal drug use and no drinking, whereas brown had a long and rocky relationship with drugs and several high-profile pcp-fueled incidents. he was a renowned abuser and wife-beater, yet we see only one brief off-camera hit. he was very politically-involved, yet routinely played for whoever had the bigger platform, endorsing civil rights one minute and nixon's re-election bid the next. the film shows none of this because it's too busy dropping in random landscape shots at golden hour. what saves this film are the performances. as much as i think i might hate tate taylor's directing, he does assemble a talented team. i can't blame the writers or editors, all of who have done some fine films. we of course know boseman became a fantastic actor, and he's accompanied in the film by fine performances from octavia spencer, lennie james, craig robinson playing it straight for a change, and especially nelsan ellis as brown's adoptive brother (and hit singer in his own right) bobby byrd. i actually didn't care that much for viola davis here as brown's mother... a somewhat muddled performance that didn't have room to be more than a trope. and dan aykroyd also comes across very mixed, sometimes far too broad. we know they're phenomenal actors, so i again have to blame the directing for not getting the performances out of them that they're quite capable of. the most unfortunate aspect of the film though is that it just doesn't do justice to brown and his collaborators either visually or musically. taylor is so interested in "blackwashing" brown's history to highlight him as an icon that we only once get a sense of his musical process (and it's fictional). we only see him being great, never see the work that went into it; how the talented musicians around him cut their own albums and helped write for him; how he bridged musical styles through innovation; how he stood out from the pack beyond just dance moves and a nose for money. and as much as the sets are dressed and costumes are correct, the film just isn't lit for black skin, the actors sometimes disappearing beneath their wigs and makeup. if you look at cinematographer stephen goldblatt's work, you'll see for example the first two lethal weapon films, which are good, but dark. and the 3rd and 4th '90s batman movies...again, dark. he doesn't do the african-american actors here any favors, unlike a film like moonlight, which was lit for those actors. in short, this just doesn't give you an appreciation for really how great these people could look and sound. get on up has some great raw material, but is in need of a massive re-edit. you could also trim 15-20 minutes of unessentials, and i'd hope there's some scenes of more substance (particularly of the '70s) on the cutting room floor to re-insert. it's a film that misses the mark, but is worth watching for the performers nonetheless. then go read up on everything you're missing here: https://www.vulture.com/2014/08/12-crazy-james-brown-moments-get-on-up.html and here: https://slate.com/culture/2014/08/how-get-on-up-skimps-on-james-browns-revolutionary-music.html it's a hell of a story.