MOVIE · 2014

Get on Up

Drama139 min

James Brown’s rise from childhood poverty to music stardom unfolds in fragments, jumping across the 1950s, ’70s, and ’80s as he revisits the moments that made him a major force in American music. Chadwick Boseman is Brown, with the film following him onstage, backstage, and back through his early life as memories interrupt the present. A nonlinear structure keeps circling the man behind the performer, and Brown occasionally breaks the fourth wall to address the audience directly. Alongside him is Bobby Byrd (Nelsan Ellis), one of the key figures in Brown’s career and personal history.