I don't think this movie is superior to "La Bamba" or "The Buddy Holly Story."

Rating: Null/10 (3 November 2004)

But, it is certainly the most refreshingly honest bio-pic I've seen in a long time. In fact, it might be more accurate to call this "brutally honest."
*Possible spoilers ahead.* I never knew that he had spent the first seven years of his life in northern Florida (rather than the "Georgia" he was always singing about). Nor was I aware that he had been banned from performing in the latter state, until 1979. But, what I found most shocking of all was the revelation that he had been a heroin-addicted philanderer!
Where was this kind of uncompromising honesty when Denzel Washington was portraying Reuben "Hurricane" Carter? That film took all kinds of liberties with the truth, in order to make it seem like the real-life Carter had been framed for a crime he never committed. *A train of thought that has long since been derailed, I believe.*
Jamie Foxx, however, shows the world--and lily-white me, most of all--that Raymond Charles Robinson, Senior was just as human as anyone else. He had flaws that counter-balanced his indisputable musical genius. And, for showing such integrity, I think it will be an unpardonable crime if Mr. Foxx does not get the Best Actor Oscar come the spring of 2005!