Review of Get On Up (2014) by Reini U — 30 Jul 2014
What an unexpected and pleasant surprise! One of the best scripts in the last years by the brothers Jez and John Henry Butterworth, who previously wrote Birthday Girl and Fair Game. The story opens with one of the weirder episodes of the infamous James Brown, who as King of his declining empire sees someone taking a long and smelly shit in his bathroom in the office, takes his gun and holds a Tarantino like long and frightening speech, which just ends with showing his exceptional larger than life character while still deeply rooted in his rural past.
It's just a conventional biopic story, but with exceptional distance to the character, thus allowing exceptionally intelligent criticism, but always being fair to him. Every little scene is masterfully scripted, and if people are still not entirely convinced, "something is missing", this is right.
The dramatic arches are not emphasized with larger than life musical performances as in "Walk the Line" or "Ali", it's mostly pure dialog, as in a David O. Russell film. A very nice homage to James Brown.
This review of Get On Up (2014) was written by Reini U on 30 Jul 2014.
Get On Up has generally received positive reviews.
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