Jimi: All Is by My Side

Being a huge Hendrix fan, and studying, researching his life! "Mind you his own words and voice" The direction, writing sucked, the actors were good. Sad the actors were thrown in a bad band meaning the tone and writing were bad! Why? It was not all true ask the real Kathy!!! The film had a depressing tone...André Benjamin did a great job of capturing physical character and hats off for the voice but missed the beat. But hey who the hell could play Jimi 100%. I'm sure André Benjamin could have been greater with an Oliver Stone. Really all the actors were good, just the band sucked (direction, writing, cinematography, tone, everything) True or not the direction and writing (band) sucked!

I saw this film at TIFF here in Toronto, and really wanted to give the director a piece of my mind during the audience Q&A (because I was fuming!) but decided to be welcoming and let the reception of the film at the box office give the director the required feedback. The film focuses on two white women that were instrumental in the success of Hendrix (were they?), and it also portrays Hendrix as a stereotypical black man who abuses his woman. The film also doesn't contain any of Hendrix's own musical compositions. So this film must have been made by a white man, correct? Probably a racist white man that thought that Hendrix needed to be knocked off his pedestal? Similarly, if the first feature length biopic of Einstein didn't reference any of his works and showed that he was catapulted to fame by non-Jews and he abused his wife, you would think that the film was made by an anti-Semite. Well, surprise, the film was made by a black man. My only conclusion is that this is a case of an Oreo, and that a better film would be to investigate the forces that motivated the film maker to make such a film. On the positive side, Andre Benjamin did an excellent job, given the handcuffs of the script. Hopefully, someone will make a film on Hendrix that does justice to his creative genius.

And he does a great job of capturing the persona of the man. It's funny, I did not realize how much I knew about Hendrix. Than again, his impact in music was iconic, but his time on the scene was very short, so the info is consolidated. Everything I know about Hendrix comes from second hand accounts from those who knew, or to be more accurate, played with the man. This makes everything going on in the movie feel like Jimi is now telling his side of the story Comparing this movie to another movie about the guitar god called Hendrix which came out in 2000, which like this movie had no Hendrix music played in it, but All Is by My Side makes you feel like your not missing that. Andre Benjaminn and the filmmakers really capture the man and make you feel like you hear the music (even though you never do). I been hearing about Andre wanting to play Jimi for 10 years now so he had plenty of time to research the role and it was everything I heard Hendrix to be. Also, unlike the other Hendrix film, this movie focuses on Hendrix before he became an icon. That year before he broke in America. When he was playing in New York than headed to London and formed the Experience. It also focus on three woman who had a big influence on his life during this time, this was my favorite part of the film as I had no idea how much I actually knew about Jimi's personal life. I read one review on this website in which the person who wrote it was upset about racist comments stated in other reviews. This is fitting for a Hendix movie and this part of his career is touched on nicely about how Jimi was not black enough for blacks and should be playing more music for black people, none of them realizing at the time that having a sea of white people worship the ground you walk on is just as good for the cause as James Brown singing a protest song. All Jimi cared about was the music he loved to play and the film was fair about this point. In comparisons to Get on up, I like this movie way better, but I'm a huge fan of Hendrix. Hopefully one day, we will get a movie using Jimi's music, but it's weird that this movie truly works without it.

I am a pro musician and just watched this in Los Angeles. I've also read many biographies on Jimi's life and seen all the documentaries over the last 30 years about his personal life. It is sad to say that the storytelling is very inaccurate, and mean spirited in regards to Jimi's character. No wonder the estate did not grant musical rights to the director. If I was in charge of the estate, and after watching the film, I would never want to align myself to this production or their staff in any way. It's one thing to work hard and do the best you can do to make a film like this; it is another to defile Jimi's character. I left the screening angry that the filmmakers would do this just to create pathos or something, but have no respect for the artist. My final word to anyone going to view this is: don't believe everything you see in this film.

Jimi: All Is By My Side starts in June 1966, when Jimi Hendrix was just a young struggling R&B musician trying to make it in New York. It ends moments before Jimi leaves London to appear at the Monterey Pop Festival, June 1967. This was an exciting period in Hendrix's life, but what director/writer John Ridley (12 Years a Slave) offers the audience is a slow-paced drama full of inaccuracies, and not even one note of original Hendrix music. It helps to know a little about the rock star's life before watching the movie, but the more you know, the more fault you find. The story seems mostly told from the perspective of Linda Keith (Imogen Poots), girlfriend of Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones. While Richards is away on tour, Linda discovers Hendrix at a discotheque, introduces him to LSD, and unites him with a producer who has plans to make him a big star in England. Unfortunately, too much of the next 117 minutes focuses on the rivalry between Linda Keith and Hendrix's new girlfriend Kathy Etchingham (Hayley Atwell). André Benjamin does a decent job of capturing Hendrix's chain-smoking, gum-chewing, cosmic babble persona, but not much of his stage charisma. His lines are a conglomeration of quotes Hendrix said years after this short time frame. The line "When the power of love overcomes the love of power…" was never even said by Hendrix. There are also several uses of current urban slang like "hella" and "fo' real" that easily flow off the tongues of the '60s characters. The real life Kathy Etchingham has objected to her portrayal in this film from its very start. Etchingham is portrayed as having an instant infatuation with Hendrix but tolerates several beatings from him. Etchingham does admit there was a time when she threw a plate at Hendrix after he made snide comments about her bad cooking, but it was nothing like the bloody scene in the movie where in a jealous rage Hendrix beat her with a telephone receiver until she was unconscious and hospitalized. Also disappointing was session player Robert "Waddy" Wachtel's take on Hendrix's sound in the studio and on stage. Granted, those are some big shoes to fill, but Wachtel's guitar work falls way below an acceptable line. The scene where Hendrix wins over Chas Chandler (Andrew Buckley)with a stunning guitar solo at the Café Wha? comes off lackluster, as is the version of "Sgt. Pepper's…" which isn't even close to the way The Jimi Hendrix Experience played it on several occasions. As mentioned earlier, no original Hendrix music was authorized for this movie. Experience Hendrix LLC (run by Hendrix's step-sister) said no to the project early on, so all Hendrix fans are left with are covers like "Wild Thing" and "Killin' Floor." And for some reason, "Hey Joe" was left out. Hendrix's cover of "Hey Joe" was an important motivator for Chas Chandler to bring Hendrix to England. It went to Number 6 in the U.K., but the movie gives the impression that Hendrix wasn't having any chart success. As the credits role, Benjamin and Wachtel do an odd duet of "Bleeding Heart" in the style of the Hendrix's acoustic version of "Hear My Train a Comin'." The whole experience felt like a low- budget made-for-TV flick that came out in 1974. Jimi Hendrix deserves far better. http://bammagazine.com/hendrix-without-his-mojo-or-hey-joe-2/

Andre 3000 nailed JIMI, to the FAn or the Young, he seemed naive but you could smell from 10 miles away he wasn't. To the old and credulous:no. This movie is very accurate (ESPECIALLY from the last BIO that came from WRIGHT). I read some dude on IMDb sayin something about the dialogue not being believable. STRANGE. Cause, some of the dialoge I was AHEAD of it and was spoiling it for my GF..(cause it's been taken out of several JIMI BOOKS) I could almost guess the sentences they were about to say. They were accurate with the details such as the writing on the wall "Eric Clapton is god" The Kurtis knight references to him being a pimp, without blatantly showing it. The coat..etc.. They were subtle with the characters. Cause for all of them it was a period of transition. JIMI was NOT REALLY famous. Linda Keith was probably gonna Break up with Keith. KAthy had no idea what idea. SO, in a sense, it wasn't you HEDONISTIC rock BIO, where everyone CAN be THEMSELVES. In a nutshell this movie is VERY,VERY,VERY European. I can picture a lot of Americans being mad, that it's not a POOR BOY becomes RICH and OVERCOMES SOMETHING till the GREAT finale. This movie, mark my words, will not age. While the RAY's etc..will seem like CAMP movies in 20 years, this one will last. It IS CLEAR the director LOVES JIMI as much as ME. He did not do this movie for the RATINGS, he did it for himself, and other like him, who love, deeply JIMI. 10 STARS. I'm a new fan of the director and of ANDRE 3000

I have been an avid Hendrix fan ever since the first time I heard his music back in the sixties. I've listened to all his recordings, watched every video and read most literature written about his life. This film makes Jimi out to be a dull moron who was violent and not interesting! What I would give to have had his talent and beautiful character! He was a lovely human being and the greatest musician to have ever graced this planet! He would have never hurt Kathy as was portrayed in this horrible film! Ridley made it seem that there was no interest in Jimi after he got to London and he lived as a hermit in his London flat... that is so far from the truth! When he played with the Cream, Eric did not walk off stage with anger and jealous envy... he has said in several interviews that he greatly enjoyed the session and had a great time playing with him! I am sad and offended that this garbage was allowed to air throughout the world! I hope that most people agree with me and will not be influenced into believing this trash!

I'm a big fan of Jimi Hendrix and his music. I have read many books and watched about every film-bit I have found about him, so I had to really tell myself to take it for what it is, only a movie about a small part of his life. But seriously? After about an hour into the movie it hit me that many people will maybe only see this film and think that this is how he was. PLEASE do not take this film seriously. Please, go search for and watch documentaries and read books, this is just too bad to be taken seriously and I see it as a insult, not just to Jimi Hendrix, but to all of the involved artists and other people that was involved in his life.

When dealing with such an iconic figure such as Jimi Hendrix, sometimes the hardest thing about capturing the essence of a character, the perspectives of a legend, and the workings of a man are the most difficult points to show on screen. Jimi Hendrix is a name that pretty well everyone knows, and a name that many will continue to remember for many years to come. So how does one humanize, arguably, the greatest guitar player who ever lived? The film itself is an exercise in the practice of subtly and minute brilliance. All Is By My Side is a rustic and antique look at the life of a man; Johnny Allen Hendrix, a man who served the US army and was honourably discharged; Jimmy James, the backing guitarist for the Isley Brother's, Little Richard and Curtis Knight; finally Jimi Hendrix–the experience. Undoubtedly, first time director, veteran screenwriter and passionate Hendrix fan John Ridley had a difficult time with the production. Relying mostly on passion, Ridley focused on the small instances of Hendrix's career, and navigates through the film with nuanced characters and fragmented events in Hendrix's career. Its admirable how Ridley, through a slew of obstacles, was still able to delve deep into the world of Hendrix through extensive research. Unable to attain the musical rights from the Hendrix estate, Ridley opted for covers of Hendrix songs and songs Hendrix covered to fill the somewhat hushed void of a musical autobiography. I won't lie in saying that I was quite surprised to see an autobiographical film of one of the loudest and most electric guitarist to be so quiet. The soundtrack is definitely something I will not be rushing to get. Although Ridley was unable to fill the musical gap of the film, he made up for it visually and in his actors performances. Andrea Benjamin's take on Hendrix will surely be the overlooked performance of the year. Nailing Hendrix's mannerism, voice, passion (or lack there-of) and his nonchalant attitude, Benjamin is spot-on. Not far behind is Imogen Poots and her portrayal of Linda Keith, the woman who was responsible for introducing the world to Hendrix. Poots is an absolute acting force to be reckoned with. Linda's subdue scenes with Hendrix, although somewhat tame and uneventful, give the audience the most auspicious look into the inner workings of the Hendrix psyche. All Is By My Side will surely be an overlooked film by critics and audiences alike. Substituting thunderous Hendrix stage antics with gorgeous shots of the London landscape, the smokey underground music scene at the time and blurry world of rock and roll, cinematographer Tim Fleming creates an intimate portrayal of a man who was mysterious and misunderstood to others, but to himself as well. All Is By My Side is a beautiful, quiet and stylistically generous offering to the hardcore Hendrix fan. Night Film Reviews: 7/10 Stars

Man, I don't know what drugs some of these other reviewers are on. One person seems to be under the impression that the movie claims Jimi didn't play guitar before he came to England. WTF? Another person claims the film is racist because it accurately portrays white people helping Jimi move to London and start his own band. Yet another person claims Eric Clapton didn't walk off the stage when Jimi sat in with Cream because Clapton doesn't mention it when he's interviewed, but plenty of others remember it that way, and Clapton isn't going to go out of his way to bring up something that makes him look bad. Which brings us to Ms. Etchingham. You know, every time you watch a documentary about Hendrix there's an interview with a different woman whose only claim to fame in life is that she slept with Jimi, and they all seem to be self-appointed guardians of his legacy, every one of them was the real true love of his life, and none of them have a single negative word to say about him. But Hendrix was a famous womanizer—how he juggled jealous women is part of the focus of the film—and it is well known that he became angry and violent when he drank. So maybe Jimi beat her and maybe he didn't, but if he did I wouldn't really expect Ms. Etchingham to admit it, and if he didn't it doesn't really bother me that much because the episode can be viewed as a metaphor for a darker side of his personality that really did exist and wouldn't have been explored in the film without that scene. Artistically I thought the film was a triumph and one of the best rock biopics I've seen. Andre Benjamin NAILS Jimi. He deserves an Oscar nomination for his performance. He obviously spent a lot of time listening to audio of Jimi speaking because he captured the rhythm and inflections of Jimi's speech perfectly. And acting-wise Benjamin was excellent, I thought he got inside Jimi's character even more than Jamie Foxx did in Ray. As an actor he was remarkably in the moment and very subtle. And the female leads are with him all the way, especially Imogen Poots as Linda Keith, she's soooo good. The reviewer who said that the "crazy cuts and directing style" gave him a headache would undoubtedly get a cerebral hemorrhage from a Godard film, the editing was artistically innovative and miles ahead of standard Hollywood flicks like Get On Up and Ray. As for the lack of original Hendrix songs, in the end it didn't bother me much. In a way it might have worked to the film's advantage, because it forced the director to concentrate more on creating a character study based on dialogue and narrative instead of recreating one performance clip after another, as in Get On Up. And anyhow, two-thirds of the movie takes place before Jimi put together the Experience and started writing songs. I did wonder why they didn't use "Hey Joe" since Jimi didn't write it and he was playing it onstage when Chas Chandler saw him for the first time. But overall, I loved the movie and thought it rocked hard.