Upon reviewing the Bolden movie, I first thought I should compare it to what really happened in history.
The movie makes a small effort to parallel it to real life, so I decided to just stick with the movie and drop in some elements from the history books while reviewing the movie for what it is.
The Bolden movie review is as exciting as the movie itself. But better planned and organized with a single aim to give you the conclusion on whether you should watch the movie or not.
Because the Bolden movie seems to have gone on and off the main plot multiple times.
Bolden Movie Review: Where The Story Begins
The Director of the Bolden is Dan Pritzker who also wrote the story with one more person, David Rothschild. The actors include people like Gary Carr, LaRay, Harvey, Ian McShane, and more.
The movie is a mythical retelling of the life of a Buddy Bolden who supposedly created jazz. He was the Cornet King of New Orleans atin his time.
To start off, the movie sets up too many issues, or so to call a focal point yet delivers only on a few.
For example, the issue of racism is obviously present.
But the next big thing they try to represent is the class even within the black community, between the lighter skin black people to the very dark skin, then they have the religious separation. Issues between Presbyterianism vs the Lutheran protestants, to the practices of voodoo.
Yet, they are also not fully developed or expressed, but just placed as pieces of information within the movie for the people to know.
One of the aspects that I personally think was good in the movie is the thought of the betrayal of the protagonist’s best friend. In the movie, once he forms a band and becomes successful for a bit, he hires his best as his clarinet player.
But as they improve and as the times improve, he has to hire better players like the best player of clarinet in that time.
However this puts his friend in a position of weakness where he has to worry if he is going to end up losing his place in the band.
This is something that you can include in a biopic and expand upon further because it just resonances with the tone of the movie.
What you can’t include are the following:
Bolden Movie Review – The “But” Part
The inclusion of psychedelics and its wide-use is very weird and not true to the time period. Yes, you are shooting the movie now and the Bolden Movie review understands this.
But the movie doesn’t seem to understand that those were not quite as popular then as they are now. Psychological aspects and the fact that he ends up becoming crazy is somewhat of a true story.
Another one of the good things that the movie benefits from is the inclusion of love and lust. Bolden falls in love with a girl and obtains her through some obstacles, even impregnating her, but as he becomes successful.
However at this part, it was not quite necessary to include the religious contradiction just for the sake of including it.
He sleeps with other women breaking this and failing at this relationship as well.
This works both as an integral part of the plot and as an instrument to peek into the true life of the musician.
Because, it is easier to understand and imagine a successful person of the 19th century wanting to sleep with more women.
However, we have stopped at two important aspects of the plot, both of which were weakly developed and shown.
That is mainly because there are a bunch of other things like the inclusion of voodoo practises, and loyalty issues, and the importance of music.
Which by the way, we must do a stop by in this Bolden movie review. Because music was really important at that time. It was an instrument to get people to dance and groove and feel sexual vibes towards each other.
Bolden Jazz Movie Review
That is one part the movie producers have nailed it. If you are a jazz lover, then you are going to love the music in the movie.
So much so, that you won’t recognize any of the mistakes in the plot of character development or any other technicalities.
Although this adds up to the already too many angles the movie caught up in. But as a movie about jazz, this side can be understandable for it also succeeds in this part.
Too many sex scenes that doesn’t really help with the plot or the character development seems too much. This is also one of the angles the movie failed.
You cannot start too many projects and finish it all at once. They needed to understand that and make one cohesive plot, theme and one main character that involves his life around one topic–jazz.
The good acting on top of the captivating music makes this movie an entertaining one. Meaning that it is not boring. Each scene leaves as soon as its welcome time is over. I’d give this movie a 6.5 to 7.
Although it’s got many flaws in character development and the plot and setups and payoffs, the movie has one of the best music that makes up for all of them.
Good music that fits the thematic content of the movie, and makes its genre and narrative of good quality.
To Wrap Up the Review
Bolden movie review touched on as many points as possible that would give you a clear idea whether to watch the movie or not.
Even though the Bolden has some flaws and limitations, it never is boring, and filled with good music and acting.
Depending on what you like better in movies, you could easily make a decision based on those preferences.
Don’t forget to check out the Eli movie review if you like horror movies or the Lists category for anything from the best horror movies to the best medieval movies.
