Lisa Cortes’s documentary is an irresistible tribute to the pioneering rock’n’roll genius, whose wild transgressive energy and explosive sexuality blazed a trail and created a musical and performing language for James Brown, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Prince, Elton John, David Bowie, and many other stars – some of whom had the good grace to thank him.
And he is now considered a great queer artist, which is how many interviewees here describe him; Little Richard in fact described himself as gay, and the movie perhaps could have done more analytical work in thinking about the relationship between the two terms. But it certainly does an excellent job at pointing out the hiding-in-plain-sight outrageousness.
