The Best Chadwick Boseman Movies Ever

Part of the mystique of Chadwick Boseman's incredible career is the diversity of important Black historical figures that he brought to life on screen. Most fans remember Boseman's characters from the worlds of baseball and law, but in a slightly lesser-known film he also embodied one the most important Black musicians of the last century: funk legend James Brown.

The James Brown biopic Get on Up was led by The Help director Tate Taylor, and featured Boseman as the Godfather of Soul alongside a truly all-star cast. Nelsan Ellis, Dan Aykroyd, Viola Davis, Craig Robinson, and Octavia Spencer all lent their talents to this artistic music history lesson, which hit theaters on August 1, 2014.

According to The Daily Beast, the unreasonably talented Boseman did all of his own singing and dancing in the role. He also took some lessons in music superstardom from Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger to help prepare to play the iconic singer. When Chadwick Boseman takes on a real-life figure, he always goes all in. In his contemporaneous review of Get on Up, Richard Corliss of Time Magazine wrote of Boseman's performance, "Incarnating James Brown in all his ornery uniqueness, he deserves a Pulitzer, a Nobel and instant election to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame." 

High praise, indeed, and hardly overstated.