Bolden

Parental Rating: R

Contains: Language    Nudity    Violence    Sex    Drug Use    Adult Content    

Jill's Review

Opena May 3, 2019

Runs 108 minutes

This movie is the story of Charles "Buddy" Bolden (Gary Carr). As the opening scrawl states, we don't know much about Bolden except he was born in New Orleans in 1877 and he was considered the founder of Jazz. There are no known recordings of his music and most of what is known about Bolden has been passed down. He played his music by ear and he and his band were popular from 1900 until about 1907. Then, at the age of 30, he suffered a psychotic break and was institutionalized for the rest of his life. He died in 1931. The movie traces the trajectory of his life (or what might have been his life).

This movie is like a fever dream. Most of it is told in flashbacks as Bolden listens to a recording of Louis Armstrong (Reno Wilson - really good) from the mental hospital. The story jumps all over the place and you are never sure what is really going on, which I guess is intentional since most of it is just made up. There is plenty of great music but the story is very disjointed. Michael Rooker and Ian McShane make appearances as not very nice people. There is plenty of violence and random nudity. If you are a huge Jazz fan, then you might want to see this for the music alone. Otherwise, you might just want to skip this one. 

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