'Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown' is a look at the music career of musician James Brown which begins with his first hit song, 'Please, Please, Please,' in 1956.
Critics Of "Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown"
Los Angeles Times
October 27, 2014
A documentary film on the life and times of James Brown as the times made the music and the music shaped the times, it is a long, soulful scream over an insistent funky vamp.
While this doc certainly could've used more texture, and sometimes races along like a cinematic Wikipedia entry, Gibney accomplishes his task at hand, showing exactly why Brown has had the ability to "stay on the scene" for decades, and decades to come.
There's so much to the Brown story that focus becomes an issue in a film like Alex Gibney's "Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown." How do you capture the hardest working man in show business in just two hours?
His fans will also get a kick out watching him sing, dance, and showboat as only he knew how to do. But if you don't care for the singer or his music, chances are that you'll lose interest in it before it's over.
People make documentaries about musicians all the time, and some of them are rich with insight. But even among the best of the bunch, few are as thorough about the artist's music as Alex Gibney's Mr. Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown.
Alex Gibney's Mr. Dynamite: The Rise Of James Brown is an assured threading-of-the-needle, slowly working its way to the sweet spot where the man and the legend overlap.
