Documentary on Sly Stone From ‘Questlove’ Dances to the Music of a Different Drum
‘Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)’ attempts to be something more than just an appreciation of Stone’s life and career, as noted by its parenthetical alternate title.
The lead singer and creative force behind the legendary band Sly and the Family Stone, Sly Stone deserves the celebratory documentary treatment, and the new Hulu movie “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius)” certainly recognizes the musician for the trailblazing alchemist that he was between the mid-1960s and the early ’70s. Yet the film attempts to be something more than just an appreciation of Mr. Stone’s life and career, as noted by its parenthetical alternate title.
It’s this topic that both differentiates the doc from other music biographies and saddles the proceedings with a theme it cannot explore with any real depth. “The Burden of Black Genius” turns out to be “The Burden of Avoiding a ‘Behind the Music’-Style Documentary.”
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