A good movie

Since I have always been a huge fan of Jimi Hendrix, of course, I was quite eager to check this movie, even if it apparently didn’t get much love when it was released. Well, at least, you can’t argue that André Benjamin AKA André 3000 was a perfect choice to play the most famous guitar player that ever lived. Furthermore, not only André Benjamin had the right look but I think he delivered here a really solid performance. Concerning the movie itself, they decided to focus on the few years before he got his breakthrough at the Monterey Pop Festival which was maybe not really original but it was effective enough. However, it was not really accurate though. Indeed, they made it seems as if Hendrix was really struggling up until that point but it wasn’t the case. Sure, pretty much nobody knew him in the States at the time but he was already quite famous and successful in Europe. However, what was even more problematic was that, instead of really focusing on Jimi Hendrix himself, they spent way too much time on several women that popped up randomly in his life. Sure, you could argue that Linda Keith and Kathy Etchingham had a major impact on his life but who the hell was Ida played by Ruth Negga? What was the added value of this character? Even more bewildering, who was this lovely black woman played by Clare-Hope Ashitey who showed up for only one scene? Well, she was apparently Lithofayne Pridgeon who was Hendrix’s girlfriend back when he was living in New York but I found this information afterwards, not while watching this movie. Anyway, you wonder what was the point of adding her since she had so very little impact on the movie as a whole. Above all, by giving so much attention to all these women, you never spend enough time on Hendrix himself who remained a rather opaque enigma. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Jimi Hendrix.