MovieChat Forums > Jimi: All Is by My Side (2014) Discussion > High Praise for Andre Benjamin

High Praise for Andre Benjamin


I'm reading such terrific reviews of his performance.

Some critics have complained that Benjamin is more than 10 years older than Hendrix was during the events the film depicts, but that actually seems weirdly appropriate here. He does a great job capturing Hendrix's mumbling, mystic-in-training patter—the way his words flowed together like they're songs without music—but what comes across most strongly is the character's indifference to the trappings of rock 'n' roll. It's as if the older man is commenting on the younger man's situation, allowing Benjamin a chance to relive a bygone period in his own life.http://theconcourse.deadspin.com/andre-3000-channels-hendrix-finds-him self-in-jimi-all-1638574395

But even in electrifying scenes like Jimi opening his show at London's Saville Theater by putting his unique spin on the title track of the just-released '"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" right in front of Paul and George, there's no doubt that Benjamin is the film's magnetic core. Benjamin's silky-voiced, dangerously volatile turn as Jimi is a star-spangled triumph.
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/reviews/jimi-all-is-by-my-side-2014 0925

All Is By My Side is graced with such a present, lived-in lead performance. André Benjamin completely disappears into the role. The OutKast co-frontman is currently 12 years older than Hendrix was at the time of his death, but the mismatch never rubs; few people on earth look so comfortable with a guitar in their hands. Benjamin bears an uncanny resemblance to Hendrix, but he never settles for mimicry. Taking his cues from the unformed characterization of Ridley’s script, Benjamin inhabits the legendary guitarist with a simplicity that undercuts Hendrix’s potentially suffocating importance.
http://thedissolve.com/reviews/1097-jimi-all-is-by-my-side/



It's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it.
RIP Roger Ebert

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I CANNNOTTT WAAITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT for it!!!


Yes, just from the trailer, and clips from youtube..it IS CLEAR he nailed it.

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Unfortunately his great portrayal ends up in a pretty bad movie. I don't blame the actors, but I do blame the writers, editor, director, and producer.
Once they failed to get the rights to the music, they should have dropped it like a hot potato. Or a flaming guitar, I guess.

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A biopic can only ever be as good as it's central performance allows it to be, and in the case here that could have been very good idea. AB brings to the role all the innate pop charisma of his other career as one half of Outkast, as well as an uncanny reproduction of Hendrix's distinctive speaking voice which is spot on if a little one note over the course of the movie. But then the script only calls on AB to hit that same note, in almost every scene.

The major drawback is the lack of Hendrix's music, and Jimi is all about the music. To make a film about probably the greatest guitarist who ever lived, without his music, is pointless. The film could have been so much more, but in the end was a criminal waste of time.


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Yes, a truly great and lovely performance, and many of the other performances were good as well. Unfortunately almost all the women were written as obnoxious, demanding nags, and the pacing of the entire movie was almost unbearable.

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I've see it and agree 100% with the dissolve critic.

Couldn't have said it better.

Great movie.

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