Led by an electrifying Chadwick Boseman, Get on Up delivers a biopic of the superb variety that chronicles the highs and lows in the life of the “Godfather of Soul” James Brown.

For many living in the Google era, the name James Brown doesn’t bring to mind a legacy of innovative and ground-breaking music, but rather a mug shot of a dishevelled man with a world weary face and wild, bluish tinged hair. A drawn-out and messy battle over the legendary soul man’s estate after his death in 2006 only confirmed that James Brown was a talented, yet complicated man who lived a dramatic life.

Only makes sense that the Tate Taylor directed Get on Up is a biopic that’s just as powerful in its depiction of James Brown the man (orphan, criminal, lover, adulterer, family man, wife beater, activist, instigator) as it is James Brown the innovative and inspirational musician.

As portrayed by Chadwick Boseman, all shades of the “Godfather of Soul” are played to startling effect. Music biopics are a juicy prospect for actors to strut their multi-dimensional stuff, usually to awards recognition. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn’t. Boseman’s performance works to the absorbing, organic levels of Jamie Foxx in Ray and Joaquin Phoenix in Walk the Line.

Granted, Boseman does more lip-synching than actual singing. Yet so convincing is his performance that one would think the spirit of James Brown itself jumped into Boseman’s skin, such are the supernatural heights Boseman achieves.

While Get on Up is a chronicle of James Brown’s life, it in no way follows a straight forward narrative path. Beginning in 1988 with an older, shotgun carrying Brown taking exception to his private bathroom being used (a bewildering low for the singer), the film travels back and forth to the key moments in Brown’s life, with Boseman and his fine supporting cast (Dan Aykroyd, Nelson Ellis, Viola Davis) transformed with the times through great make-up effects and costume design. Great too is the vibrant imagery by cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt.

Taylor presents James Brown as the flawed man that he was. In fact in many ways he was a scumbag, who managed to alienate everyone around him. But his music…man oh man, that music is a thing of genius, with stage shows that lend themselves cinematically with its rich visual palate and Boseman dancing and (faux) singing up a storm to funk-a-licious results.

There are many music biopics about many music legends, yet not many “pop” like Get on Up. Boseman is a big reason why.