Respect

Steve Crum started his review by admitting, “Some of my favorite movies are biographies. Make that MANY. I am talking Hollywoodized versions of a celebrity’s life. The musical bio is a particular fav sub-genre. Respect, the Aretha Franklin saga, is a comfortable fit. It’s pretty much cookie-cutter predictable. (Hey, we all know Aretha’s songs…and there are 18 of them sung here by Jennifer Hudson over the 145-minute running time.)” In the end, if you are an Aretha Franklin fan, you will love “Respect,” released in 2021. The musical sequences are great.

Fans and others will have to endure some really sad facts of Aretha’s abusive childhood and adult personal life. Crum noted, “Regarding the latter, think of Tina Turner’s marriage to Ike…as depicted in 1993’s What’s Love Got to Do With It?” “Respect’s” screenplay, by Tracy Scott Wilson, effectively scores literally and figuratively, yet leaves out some key facts – probably because they are just too painful.

Starting in 1952 Detroit, 12-year-old “Ree” (Skye Dakota Turner) is woken up by her Baptist minister father (Forest Whitaker) to once again get out of bed to entertain the loud party in the living room, where she is told to impress the guests by her adult-like singing. (Ree/Aretha and her two sisters (Saycon Sengbloh and Hailey Kilgore) live with their dad, who is divorced from an alcoholic mom she really misses and loves.) Tragically, Ree is raped during one of her father’s parties – in her own bedroom – and she gives birth to her first son when she is 13.

Crum noted, “What Wilson’s screenplay fails to mention is the same thing occurs again when she is 14, resulting in her second son. The double whammy is that her pious father, Rev. C. L. Franklin (Forest Whitaker), raped a friend’s 12 year-old as well. And she gave birth too. These episodes were conveniently edited out.”

Ree’s life is broken more when her mother, Barbara Siggers Franklin, played by Audra McDonald, suddenly dies. Now she has no one who understands her, and no adult to turn to. Her father is anything but sympathetic or personable.

As Ree goes older, with her own children (William J. Simmons, Jerel Xavier Alston, Chase Burgess, Chirstopher Daniel, Malaki Sample, Ethan Xavier Williams) being taken care of by her grandmother (Kimberly Scott), she becomes more active in her father’s church and political aspirations. Her father’s close friends become hers, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., played by Gilbert Glenn Brown.

It is not surprising that a lot of these early scenes include gospel songs – obviously a major influence on Aretha Franklin’s singing style. Early on, her father began planning her career as a recording artist. Crum said, “He is her agent/manager. Surprisingly, at least to me, C. L. encourages Reth to sign with Columbia Records in NYC, and is introduced to the legendary jazz authority John Hammond. The moderately successful jazz records lead to several albums of pop standards.” At this point Aretha is only doing cover songs, and nothing original.

Aretha’s career then varies until she breaks from her father’s supervision to old friend Ted White, played by Marlon Wayans, who makes a successful career with original songs. She is on her way up in her career, helped by an aggressive and very physically abusive husband, Ted.

This goes with “Respect,” a sadly appropriate movie title which reflects both Aretha’s conflict and one of her biggest songs.

Much more develops between Aretha and Ted, Aretha and her father, Aretha and her sisters, and Aretha and her addictions. (Not much is said about her children, however.)

There are some surprisingly good performances by marc Maron as record producer Jerry Wexler, and Tituss Burgess (who you might remember from the Netflix series "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt") and gospel singer/pianist/composer James Cleveland.

Though a lot of the script focuses on the recording studio and creative process, it is Jennifer Hudson’s portrayal of Aretha Franklin’s songs that shines here. Hudson was the late Aretha’s personal choice to play her.

An excellent choice indeed.

Check this out on Paramount+. It is a great movie. I have loved Aretha Franklin’s music for a long time. Then again, who hasn’t? However, there were things about her I didn’t know, and this film really helped bring a lot of that to my attention. You will feel sad when you see certain things in this film, but you should still see it nonetheless. See it if you liked Aretha Franklin’s music, and at least honor her memory.

Now we have come to the end of this year’s “Black History Movie Month.” I hope you enjoyed this month. Stay tuned next month when I look at more excitement.

Hyde Park on the Hudson

For this year’s President’s Day Movie Review, I had to look up a film that I needed to see in preparation for today. Last night, I did just that with the 2012 film, “Hyde Park on Hudson.”

Roger Moore started his review by saying, “The frenetic, comic and booze-assisted visit of King George and Queen (“Mum”) Elizabeth to the private home of President Franklin Roosevelt on the eve of World War II might make for a jaunty comedy of manners in the Downton Abbey vein.”

Someday

The movie Roger Mitchell and writer Richard Nelson chose to make about this comical and crucial point in the British-American “special relationship” is more description, more disreputable than cheerful.

Even if “Hyde Park on Hudson” had been about the humorous, smart and sympathetic womanizer FDR and his handling of the British, it might have worked. However, Mitchell and Nelson, on whose play this is based, were more interested in the base and somewhat under-sourced suggestions of an affair revealed by the letters of Roosevelt intimate Margaret Suckley.

Most will say, “We’ve heard. He’s still considered one of our greatest presidents. He’s still the face we see on every American dime.”

Laura Linney plays Daisy, a spinster fifth cousin of the Roosevelts who is called from taking care of her aunt (Eleanor Bron) to the president’s side during one of his visits to his mother’s (Elizabeth Wilson) Hyde Park on the Hudson domain. He, played by Bill Murray, needs family, friends, “lady-friends,” to take his mind off the stress of the work.

In their strange first meeting, she can’t make eye contact, he can’t stop drinking martinis. And when he offers to let her see his stamp collection, everything is set for that day when she can narrate, “I knew that we were now not just fifth cousins, but very good friends.”

Yes, the movie says, it was intimate. And no, the evidence is barely unclear.

Daisy narrates the famous story of the royal visit made by the newly-crowned stutterer King George (Samuel West) and his grumpy, stuck-up wife, the future “Queen Mum,” Elizabeth (Olivia Colman). Moore noted, “Unlike the protective, adoring wife of “The King’s Speech,” this Elizabeth is testy, forever comparing “Bertie” to the king who abdicated to be with the American Wallis Simpson.”

Moore continued, “As Daisy sees them, the royals are underwhelmed by Americans, especially the American upper class which can’t reach that Downton Abbey level of service. And they’re worried, with war on the horizon in Europe, desperate for America to be ready and willing to help, despite every evidence (being ignored by everyday American folk) that nobody over here is the least bit impressed by their pedigree or their plight.”

Franklin is always calling Daisy to him, making light of the acts of his “crazy” wife Eleanor, played by Olivia Williams, wearing prosthetic teeth.

Moore mentioned, “The movie hinges on Murray’s turn as FDR, and frankly, he comes up wanting. He looks and sounds nothing like the man, and barely makes an effort to rectify that. The famous teeth-clinched-around-cigarette-holder smile is replaced by a creepy, cadaverous upper-teeth-only grin that doesn’t work at all.”

The scenes saying president and king developing a bond barely come off, but at least Murray’s enough of an old man to manage the jokes well enough. Sometimes, underplaying has its limits.

Moore ended his review by saying, “But “Hyde Park On-the-Hudson” is a frustrating comedy and a half-hearted expose, a “coming of age” picture that suggests Daisy’s early naivete is replaced by something more “sophisticated,” if not more cynical.”

To be completely honest, I would have loved to have seen Bill Murray more on screen since I don’t think he was in it all the time. However, this is an average comedy and I don’t know if this is for everyone. I felt as though I had drifted off from looking at the film that I might have missed something. Once again, I will leave this up to you guys if you want to see this film or not. If you don’t see it, I don’t think you will be missing anything.

Look out Friday when I end this year’s “Black History Movie Month” with another biographical film that I think everyone will like.

Just Mercy

Legal dramas can often feel less than interesting as, with a few exceptions, their outcomes are inevitable. A real-life case increases a little more since people, unlike characters, are not as predictable. So many elements are combined in the 2019 film “Just Mercy” in a bid to make it stand out from the many similar films that have come before it.

Harvard Law graduate Bryan Stevenson, played by Michael B. Jordan, moves to Alabama in the early 1990s to try to help prisoners on death row who may have been wrongfully convicted. One of those prisoners is Walter “Johnny D” McMillian (Jamie Foxx), who was convicted of killing a woman based almost completely on the testimony of another convicted killer, Ralph Myers (Tim Blake Nelson).

With the help of clerk Eva Ansley, played by Brie Larson) and others, Stevenson works day and night for McMillian and others like him. This being the South and Stevenson being black, he runs into strange obstacles and racism of all types on his case. It’s only through pure determination and the help of some people willing to stand up against the system that he and McMillian stand a chance.

Alex Bentley said in his review, “Directed and co-written by Destin Daniel Cretton (Short Term 12), the film holds a steady pace that lays out the story well. There are the expected ups and downs of the appeals process, but Cretton and co-writer Andrew Lanham keep things sharp by not solely relying on clichés and mixing up the perspective of the story.”

Stevenson is the main character and it’s his work that is highlighted completely, but supporting characters are given a lot to do. While we don’t get to know Ansley all that well, it’s clear that she is a person of great depth and compassion. Time spent with McMillian in prison produces some of the most emotion of the film thanks to his friendships with other death row prisoners Herbert Richardson (Rob Morgan) and Anthony Ray Hinton (Ice Cube’s son, O’Shea Jackson, Jr.).

Bentley noted, “Unlike some other films with race at their center (cough, Green Book, cough), Just Mercy is rarely heavy-handed with its depictions of racism faced by Stevenson, McMillian, and others. There are instances when a situation feels over the top, but a step back makes you realize that what African Americans face in a state like Alabama is immensely more complicated than most people can even fathom.”

Bentley credited, “Jordan, as he’s shown many times in the past decade, is a strong presence even when the role calls for him to take a backseat to others. Both Larson and Foxx are saddled with some distracting hair at times, but the talent of each actor shines through despite that hinderance.”

“Just Mercy” was an Oscar contender if 2019 wasn’t already one of the strongest movie years in recent memory. As it stands, it’s another great film for Jordan, Larson, Foxx, and Cretton, and a reminder that advocates like Stevenson are needed to make sure our justice system remains fair for everyone.

I was trying to find another movie to watch in preparation for this month, and I researched movies to watch around Black History Month. One of the lists had said this movie needed to be seen, so I checked it out. You can watch it on HBO Max, and it is another autobiographical film that is actually a good movie. Check it out because you will love it. Sure, there are parts that will make you feel upset, but that’s what happens when you see movies that take place during a time of high racism. Still see it because I think everyone will love this movie.

Look out on Monday for my yearly President’s Day movie review.

Singin' in the Rain

Hey everyone, it’s Valentine’s Day again. For today, since I have been forgetting to talk about this for some time now, I will not miss the chance this year. I will be looking at my absolute favorite musical, “Singin’ in the Rain,” released in 1952.

There is no movie musical more fun than “Singin’ in the Rain,” and few that remain as fresh over the years. Roger Ebert credited in his review, “Its originality is all the more startling if you reflect that only one of its songs was written new for the film, that the producers plundered MGM's storage vaults for sets and props, and that the movie was originally ranked below "An American in Paris,” which won a best picture Oscar. The verdict of the years knows better than Oscar: "Singin' in the Rain” is a transcendent experience, and no one who loves movies can afford to miss it.”

The film is above all lighthearted and happy. The three actors – Gene Kelly, Donald O’Connor and 19-year-old Debbie Reynolds – must have rehearsed continuously for their dance numbers, which involve shocking acrobatics, but in the performance, they’re filled with joy. Kelly’s drenching “Singin’ in the Rain” number is “the single most memorable dance number on film,” Peter Wollen wrote in a British Film Institute monograph. Ebert said, “I'd call it a tie with Donald O'Connor's breathtaking "Make 'em Laugh” number, in which he manhandles himself like a cartoon character.”

Kelly and O’Connor were famous actors when the film was made in 1952. Debbie Reynolds was a newbie with five previous smaller roles, and this was her big break. She has to keep up with two veteran stars, and does. Ebert mentioned, “note the determination on her pert little face as she takes giant strides when they all march toward a couch in the "Good Morning” number.”

“Singin’ in the Rain” is filled with life. In a movie about making movies, you can see the joy they had making this film. It was co-directed by Stanley Donen, who was 28 at the time, and Kelly, who supervised the choreography. Ebert noted, “Donen got an honorary Oscar in 1998, and stole the show by singing "Cheek to Cheek” while dancing with his statuette. He started in movies at 17, in 1941, as an assistant to Kelly, and they collaborated on "On the Town” (1949) when he was only 25.” His other films include “Funny Face” and “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.”

One of this movie’s joys is that it’s really about something. Obviously, it’s about romance, as most musicals are, but it’s also about the film industry in a time of serious transition. The movie mentions the switch form silents to talkies, but doesn’t falsify it. Ebert mentioned, “Yes, cameras were housed in soundproof booths, and microphones were hidden almost in plain view. And, yes, preview audiences did laugh when they first heard the voices of some famous stars; Garbo Talks!” the ads promised, but her co-star, John Gilbert, would have been better off keeping his mouth shut. The movie opens and closes at sneak previews, has sequences on sound stages and in dubbing studios, and kids the way the studios manufactured romances between their stars.”

When producer Arthur Freed and writers Betty Comdon and Adolph Green were assigned to the film at MGM, their instructions were to recycle a group of songs the studio already owned, most of them written by Freed himself, with Nacio Herb Brown. Comdon and Green noted that the songs came from the period when silent films were making room for sound, and they decided to make a musical about the birth of the talkies. That led to the character of Lina Lamont, played by Jean Hagen, the blond disaster with a high-pitched voice that is not pleasant to hear.

Ebert mentioned, “Hagen in fact had a perfectly acceptable voice, which everyone in Hollywood knew; maybe that helped her win an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress. ("Singin' “ was also nominated for its score, but won neither Oscar--a slow start for a film that placed 10th on the American Film Institute list of 100 great films, and was voted the fourth greatest film of all time in the Sight & Sound poll.)” She plays a satirized dumb blond, who believes she’s in love with her leading man, Don Lockwood (Kelly), because she read it in a fan magazine. She gest some of the funniest lines (“What do they think I am? Dumb or something? Why, I make more money than Calvin Coolidge put together!”).

Ebert credited, “Kelly and O'Connor had dancing styles that were more robust and acrobatic than the grandmaster, Fred Astaire.” O’Connor’s “Make ‘em Laugh” song still is one of the most amazing dance sequences ever films – a lot of it in longer takes. She wrestles with a dummy, runs up walls and does backflips, throws himself around like a rag doll, turns cartwheels on the floor, runs into a brick wall and a lumber plank, and crashes through a backdrop. Note: Apparently, O’Connor was smoking a lot on set that he ended up being hospitalized after this song.

Kelly was the genius behind the final version of the “Singin’ in the Rain” song, according to Wollen’s study. The original screenplay placed it later in the film and tasked it to all three actors (who can be seen singing it together under the opening titles). Kelly took it for a solo and moved it up to the point right after he and young Kathy Selden (Reynolds) realize they’re falling in love. That explains the dance: He doesn’t care on getting wet because he is so in love. Kelly liked to design dances that grew out of the props and locations at hand. He dances with the umbrella, swings from a lamppost, has one foot on the curb and the other in the gutter, and in the scene’s high point, simply jumps and splashes in a rain puddle.

Other dance numbers also use real props. Kelly and O’Connor, taking diction lessons from a voice teacher, played by Bobby Watson, do “Moses Supposes” while balancing on tabletops and chairs (it was the only song written specifically for the movie). “Good Morning” uses the kitchen and living areas of Lockwood’s house (ironically, a set built for a John Gilbert movie). Early in the film, Don climbs a trolley and leaps into Kathy’s convertible. Outtakes of the jump show Kelly missing the car on one attempt and landing in the street.

Ebert said, “The story line is suspended at the two-thirds mark for the movie's set piece, "Broadway Ballet,” an elaborate fantasy dance number starring Kelly and Cyd Charisse.” It’s explained as a number Don is pitching to the studio, about a gawky kid who arrives on Broadway with a big dream (“Gotta Dance!”), and fights with a gangster’s leggy girlfriend. MGM musicals liked to stop the show for big production numbers, but it’s still possible to enjoy “Broadway Ballet” and still wonder if it’s really needed. It stops the hurried energy right in its tracks for something more formal and considered.

The climax smartly uses strategies that the movie has already made, to shoot down the dim Lina and celebrate newbie Kathy. After a preview audience cheers Lina’s new film (her voiced dubbed by Kathy), she’s trapped into singing onstage. Kathy reluctantly agrees to sing into a backstage mike while Lina mouths the words, and then her two friends join the studio boss, played by Millard Mitchell, in raising the curtain so the audience sees the trick. Kathy runs down the aisle – but then, in one of the great romantic moments in the movies, she’s held in the foreground closeup while Don, onstage, shouts, “Ladies and gentlemen, stop that girl! That girl running up the aisle! That’s the girl whose voice you heard and loved tonight! She’s the real star of the picture – Kathy Selden!” It’s corny, but it’s perfect.

The magic of “Singin’ in the Rain” lives on, but the Hollywood musical didn’t learn from its example. Instead of original, made-for-the-movies musicals like this one (Ebert noted, “and "An American in Paris,” and "The Band Wagon””), Hollywood started recycling pre-sold Broadway hits. That didn’t work, because Broadway was targeting for an older audience (many of its hits were showcases for ageless female legends). Ebert mentioned, “Most of the good modern musicals have drawn directly from new music, as "A Hard Day's Night,” "Saturday Night Fever” and "Pink Floyd the Wall” did.” Meanwhile, “Singin’ in the Rain” remains one of the few movies to live up to its advertising. “What a glorious feeling!” the posters said. It was the actual truth.

I cannot do this film justice simply by this review. If you have an HBO Max, go and see this film right now. You will love it, I promise. No other musical has ever been able to hold a candle to the sheer epicness of this film. I saw this when I was in Elementary school and I instantly fell in love with this film. So much so, I have the soundtrack on my iPhone. Check this out today and have an enjoyable time tapping your toes, humming the beats, singing the songs, dancing to them, quoting the lines, and having one of the best movie experiences ever.

Thank you for joining in on my review today. Check in this Friday for the continuation of “Black History Movie Month.”

Chi-Raq

Words like confrontational, controversial and audacious have often been used to describe director Spike Lee. Now those same words, and more (examples include boisterous and dynamic) can be used on his 2015 film, “Chi-Raq,” a modern-day adaptation of the Greek play Lysistrata by Aristophanes, first performed in 411 BC.

Set in modern-day Southside Chicago a.k.a. Chi-Raq, the update sees the neighborhood at war with gang violence. Rapper Chi-Raq (Nick Cannon, former host of “America’s Got Talent”) and his girlfriend Lysistrata (Teyonah Parris) are in the middle of the fight, a beauty couple associated with the Spartans. Across town, Cyclops, played by Wesley Snipes (wearing an eyepatch) leads the Trojans. A nightclub shooting at one of Chi-Raq’s shows, first set to his home, and the murder of a young neighborhood girl caught in the Spartan v. Trojan’s gunfight makes Lysistrata to find a solution to the violence that is putting her home at danger. Her peculiar plan is simple but clever. She assembles the wives and girlfriends from both the Spartans and Trojans gangs, and asks them to withhold intercourse from their men until they agree to put down the weapons and sign a peace treaty.

That’s the basic jest of the story. Richard Crouse said in his review, “There’s more, including a seasoned community activist played by Angela Bassett, Jennifer Hudson as a grieving mother, John Cusack as a fiery priest and Samuel L. Jackson’s flowery-tongued one-man Greek chorus named Dolmedes but the pieces are stitched together with such daring creativity that paragraphs of description won’t prepare you for the cheeky experience of watching “Chi-Raq.” Lee mixes and matches powerful anti-violence statements, large-scale dance numbers and outrageous comedy in an olio of social commentary that shouldn’t work, but does.”

When Irene, played by Jennifer Hudson, scrubs her daughter’s blood from the street, pouring water on the stain only to watch it spread and get larger, Lee effectively and flowingly makes the figurative point that no matter how hard you scrub, the bloodshed will increase.

Later as the women take over the National Guard Armory, the men use romantic songs blasted on loudspeakers to break their will. Just as they begin to collapse to the smooth sounds of Oh Girl by The Chi-Lites, Lysistrata gives them earplugs and the intercourse strike goes unbroken.

Crouse noted, “The tone is all over the place, made all the more bizarre by the dialogue, which is all in verse.” “The situation is out of control,” says an adult club owner, played by Dave Chappelle, after his employees join the strike, “and I’m in front of an empty stripper pole.” It’s today’s language inspired by Aristophanes, Tupac, and Kendrick Lamar, important and brave.

“Chi-Raq” is a strong experience. Crouse mentioned, “Lee is fearless in his handling of the material (he co-wrote the script with Kevin Willmott), taking chances narratively and visually, to tell the timely and hot button story of a “self-inflicted genocide.”” It is powerful, preachy, frustrating but in the end is unforgettable.

As I had stated last week, I read Lysistrata when I took an Ancient Comedy course in college. It was one of the funniest plays I ever read. I think everyone should read the play, regardless of how much you’re into Greek plays. Whether you read it or not, you will love “Chi-Raq.” I wanted to see this in the theaters with my brother when he asked what I wanted to see, especially after Spike Lee was promoting it in his interviews. However, we didn’t see it. The film is available on Amazon Prime, so if you have that, check it out on there. This is one of the funniest films Spike Lee has ever done and I think everyone will be laughing nonstop from beginning to end. Check it out and have an enjoyable time laughing at the film.

Next week we will look at another biographical film that I looked up to watch for this month when we continue “Black History Movie Month.”

Get On Up

Welcome back to “Black History Movie Month,” where we have some great movies that I will be looking at. Let’s kick this month off with the 2014 biopic, “Get On Up.”

Dan Mecca started his review by saying, “Biopics, especially musical biopics, are both an easy sell and a tough nut to crack. Like the most resilient of sub-genres, the formula is so tried and true that to stray from it is to avoid what is obvious. You have a storied, genius artist whose beginnings are (and have been constructed to be) the stuff Americana is built on: a poor child from a fractured family with God-given greatness. Through tragedy comes legend, and from fame comes tragedy all over again. And yet, at the end there is much to celebrate.”

While “Get On Up” does not hide from the images of all of the fairly friendly musical biopics that have come before, director Tate Taylor does his hardest to find the funk in the story of the Godfather of Soul, James Brown, played amazingly by Chadwick Boseman. Jumping around the James Brown timeline with abandon, Boseman continuously breaking the fourth wall to keep the audience engaged, Taylor wants to have fun with “Get On Up” the way Brown did on stage.

To be sure, there is no shortage of the man doing what he did best on stage throughout the two hour and eighteen-minute runtime. All of the hits are mentioned, along with the splits and the shimmies and the shakes. Mecca credited, “In every way Taylor is a better filmmaker here than three years ago when he helmed The Help.” The actor-turned-director is must more visually ambitious this time around, using his cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt most especially in the necessary flashback scenes to Brown’s childhood. Mecca noted, “Taylor seems to know how stale these moments can be to the overall bio-narrative, doing his best to skim through the far past, capturing a pinch of beautiful Southern landscape and a schmidge of tortured family history.” Viola Davis and Lennie James do great work as James’ mostly-absent parents. Octavia Spencer makes an appearance as Aunt Honey, the woman who finally raises him to be a man, amongst some considerable filth.

Obviously, Boseman is the highlight and Taylor is smart to keep his leading man front-and-center in every, single scene. Evidently, this is the James Brown story, and Boseman plays him at just about every age, the film opening in the middle of the 1988 incident resulted in a car chase and a late-in-life prison stint for the Godfather of Soul. The scene is mostly played for laughs, recognizing the peculiarities that came to somewhat define James Brown throughout his life.

It's these little moments of comedy (not to mention a few scenes that bravely patch Brown’s female appetite to his documented desire for spousal abuse) that momentarily raise the subject on-screen to something more raw, riskier. Unfortunately, there’s not enough to distinguish “Get On Up” as it’s own type of James Brown story. Mecca noted, “There are still dark times and multiple wives (none of whom serve as real characters), broken friendships that provide large metaphors for life choices and quaint reconciliations that are meant to accent that patented final swan song in movies like this. Perhaps that is the ironic compromise one makes when attempting to tell the grand story of an artistic trail-blazer to the world: following a reliable formula.”

Since we had lost a great actor too soon, I think it would be right to see this movie. Boseman did a great impression of James Brown that he was believable in the role. I was a fan of James Brown’s music and if you were too, then you would see this movie. I didn’t know until 2010 that James Brown used to be a wife abuser, much like how Sean Connery used to advocate beating his wife. However, you can’t deny the man made great music, and this movie will make you believe that Boseman is James Brown. They actually used the actual songs from James Brown during the live performances so that Boseman could lip-sync. Check this out on Netflix and have a great time enjoying this.

Next week I will be looking at a comedy on a play that I read in college in “Black History Movie Month.”