Title: Jimi: All Is by My Side

Starring: Andre Benjamin, Imogen Poots, Hayley Atwell and Andrew Buckley

Embarking on a committed, thought-provoking journey in an effort to showcase a person’s true artistic vision can become a dedicated, all-consuming process as they work to prove their abilities and talent. That unwavering devotion to their craft is captivatingly highlighted in writer-director John Ridley’s new biographical musical drama, ‘Jimi: All Is by My Side,’ which chronicles Jimi Hendrix’s dedication to launching his musical career. After completing five years of research into the guitarist’s life before writing the script, Ridley also proved his commitment to honing his craft before releasing it to the public.

‘Jimi: All Is by My Side’ chronicles the first year in the rise of Jimi Hendrix’s (Andre Benjamin) musical career in New York City and London, between 1966 and 1967. While watching him play the guitar with Curtis Knight and The Squires in New York’s Cheetah club, Linda Keith (Imogen Poots) is immediately impressed with his musical abilities. Linda, who’s the girlfriend of The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards, has connections in the music business, and sets out to help Jimi truly launch his career. After convincing former Animals instrumentalist, Chas Chandler (Andrew Buckley), to manage the up-and-coming guitarist, he brings Jimi with him to London to truly launch his career.

While in London, Jimi’s personal relationship with Linda begins to falter when he meets Kathy Etchingham (Hayley Atwell). The two begin a serious relationship, though their initial bliss with each other is short-lived. Between continuous incidents of the guitarist being hesitant to truly socialize in London, there were moments when he either refused to defend her, or assaulted her for talking to other men, when he decided to leave his apartment. While Kathy’s still recovering from the physical attack from Jimi, he refuses to take her to see his performance at the historic Monterey Pop Festival in California, which makes her doubt his sincerity with her.

Kathy also questions their relationship when Jimi begins spending time with Afro-American activist, Ida (Ruth Negga). While she often likes to discuss racial tensions in London, Jimi prefers to concentrate more on his music, and how it unified his listeners. Despite his debates with Ida over social disparity, his tumultuous relationship with Kathy and lingering feelings of longing and a need of closure with Linda, Jimi didn’t allow his personal entanglements to interfere with his rise to fame.

The genesis of the biographical musical drama enthrallingly began when Ridley first heard Jimi’s song, ‘Sending My Love to Linda.’ The filmmaker was so intrigued about why the musician wrote it, he began researching the guitarist and the origins of his songs. His endless questions about why the song is so passionate and intense that he ended up doing five years of research into Hendrix’s life before he began writing the movie’s script.

In the process of his research, the film’s writer-director smartly decided to focus solely on the guitarist’s pre-fame period in London before he truly garnered international acclaim for his work. Since so many of the musician’s fans are familiar with the legacy surrounding his iconic career once he began releasing albums, ‘Jimi: All Is by My Side’ rightfully offered an unprecedented examination into how Jimi’s turbulent relationships with Linda, Kathy and Ida emotionally influenced his music and ideals. Ridley paid such careful attention to how the women in Jimi’s life diversely influenced his outlook on society that it powerfully offers audiences the opportunity to truly understand his drive to succeed.

Benjamin was attracted to the fact that Ridley’s script wasn’t a true biopic that tried to chronicle the guitarist’s entire life, and instead focused on his struggles to break into the music scene. With the Outkast singer’s belief that the film’s title character is the best performer in music history, he powerfully devoted several months of intensely preparing for his portrayal. Between guitar practice, voice coaching, listening to the singer in interviews and weight training, with his effort to sound and look like Hendrix for the biographical drama, Benjamin truly embodied the role.

While Benjamin passionately embodied Hendrix’s musical essence and personal mannerisms throughout “Jimi: All Is by My Side,” Poots truly gave the stand-out performance in Ridley’s passion project. The actress enthrallingly portrayed Linda as truly caring about Jimi’s drive to create and perform his own style and music, and urged him to promote himself, in an effort to get his music noticed.

Even though Jimi often views Linda as being sexually unobtainable, and still continues to proposition her after he’s been with Kathy for months, Poots effortlessly showed that Linda came to care more about protecting his music and public persona. In every scene she interacts with Jimi, Linda is powerfully shown to be endlessly working and fighting on his behalf, showing that she’ll never give up on him, no matter what situation they find themselves in.

Although Benjamin captivatingly embodied Hendrix’s musical abilities and mannerisms after relentlessly researching and studying his life, and Poots offered a career-defining and truly break-out role as Keith, with the help of Ridley’s meticulous script, ‘Jimi: All Is by My Side’ unfortunately featured production elements that leave the project feeling muddled and disarrayed. There were scenes throughout the course of the musical biopic, most notably the first night Jimi and Linda meet in New York and are experimenting with drugs together, which are filled with distracting jump cuts that take away from the effectiveness of their interaction. When the two are talking after doing the drugs together, for instance, the camera suddenly and unnecessarily jumps between different angles, and they’re not shown to be talking, despite their voices being heard. The inconsistent production value throughout the film unfortunately takes away from truly emphasizing the diverse relationships Jimi forms as he launches his career.

‘Jimi: All Is by My Side’ takes a creatively intense and unique approach into exploring the motivations, relationships and personality of the acclaimed title guitarist and singer. Ridley’s thorough exploration and research into the truly career-defining first year of Hendrix’s venture into music offers a telling insight into how he garnered his fame. Benjamin and Poots were exceptionally well-cast in their respective roles in the musical biographical drama, and didn’t just glamorize their characters’ experiences in the beginning of Hendrix’s career; they also grippingly emphasized their flaws. The actors also creatively showcased how their characters’ shortcomings drove their actions, which became increasingly self-destructive as they more fully got to know each other. Despite the actors’ riveting performances and the filmmaker’s stylized and detailed script, the visual production value, including the jumpy camera movements, was an unfortunate distraction that ultimately took away from the film’s overall effectiveness.

Technical: C+

Written by: Karen Benardello