Tate Taylor directs Chadwick Boseman, Nelsan Ellis and Dan Aykroyd in this biopic of The Godfather Of Soul / The Hardest Working Man In Show Business / James Brown. 

If Get On Up retained the manic energy of the first 10 minutes then we’d have a platinum plated classic on our hands. We meet James Brown in decline, threatening a group of honkys as one has used his personal office bathroom. He gets distracted by a bit of music in his head. The shotgun he casually waves around goes off. He discovers the culprit and after verbally reprimanding her, reaches a moment of understanding. She was just trying to get what was good for her. He gets it. Then he hears approaching sirens. We shift to 1968. He’s meeting the president… and wanting to bring the FUNK to the troops in ‘Nam. We’re flying into a base under fire. And James Brown is still calling the shots… We reach his impoverished childhood… the nonlinear mosaic of incidents continues but the shock factor levels out. We start to get the standard rags to riches, rise and fall, conflicted tribute of a complex creative. That chaotic energy is dialled right back, mawkishness shares its driver’s seat. But even when this biopic loses its uniqueness, Boseman is superb. He captures Brown perfectly. The cadence, the moves, the confidence, the power. The ageing make-up is uncanny. So it loses steam, so it becomes a back-handed hagiography. There’s enough fun, enough recreation of Brown’s brilliant music and a powerful central turn that keeps this keeping on.

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