Review of Jimi: All Is by My Side (2013) by Humbler A — 12 Oct 2014

Rock star bio pics are notoriously tricky: if you please the family of said rock star you get to use all of their music but then end up with something like Get On Up where a complex icon like James Brown is approached with kid gloves, or you do a script that makes no compromises and get no music, like what debuting director John Ridley (the Oscar-winning screenwriter behind 12 Years a Slave) did with Jimi: All Is By My Side.

Ridley makes the best of a less-than-ideal situation, catching Hendrix (played wonderfully by Andre Benjamin of Outkast) in the fascinating act of inventing himself in swingin' 60's London and New York.

The film has the loose, druggy vibe of a Hendrix haze and a potent exuberance that is deeply felt. Many women went through Hendrix's life, among them Linda Keith, vividly played by Imogen Poots. Then-20-year-old Keith was the girlfriend of Keith Richards and a major force in furthering Hendrix's career.

Linda gets him to change his look, turns him onto LSD and convinces him to sing his songs by himself while playing the hell out of the Stratocaster she gets him. Haley Atwell is just as great as Kathy Etchingham, the Yoko to Jimi's Lennon, someone who brings out the fire in him.

Cheers as well to Andrew Buckley as Chas Chandler, the manager who takes Jimi under his wing and gets him a spot at Monterey Pop, the concert event that would make him an icon. But in scenes such as Jimi opening a show in London's Saville Theater with his own rendition of 'Sgt.

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' with Paul McCartney and George Harrison in the audience it's never in doubt that Benjamin is the vital center of this film. His smooth voice and volatile performance is a triumph.

In a word: electrifying.