H.E.R. looks at the life and influence of Curtis Mayfield via talks with people such as Ziggy Marley, Dr. Dre, Maxwell, Tom Morello, John Legend, and Mary J. Blige , as well as through recorded interviews and of course his music.
This is everything you wanted to know about Mayfield and his music but were afraid to ask. It’s a film that puts Mayfield deeper into the spotlight regarding the course of music history and of social change.
This is less a birth to death biography and more an appreciation of the arc of the man and his work. Interview segments with the various people make up a large part of the film which results in in sections that are extremely detailed about certain sections of Mayfield’s body of work. For example H.E.R. and Dr Dre sit at a mixing board and play a live recording and pull it apart. The result is a film that is not like any other music bio out there.
I suspect that some people may not like this film because it’s not a greatest moments sort of thing that we regularly get these days. Others may have trouble with it; hyperspecific moments that make this feel like you need to be a super Mayfield fan to truly appreciate what you are seeing (I felt this at times). At the same time I would argue that it’s this is what sets the film apart and makes us realize just how good and important Mayfield was.
Recommended.
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