James Brown used to call himself “the hardest working man in show business.” As he left us almost two decades ago, I trust it’s not sacrilegious to suggest the sobriquet be passed to Ahmir Thompson, better known as Questlove, a musician, producer, author and filmmaker (as in the incredible “Summer of Soul” from 2021). His new documentary, “Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World,” is an astonishing movie that fully lives up to its deliberately unwieldy title.
It does so largely in its portrait of Maurice White, the visionary and mercurial founder of the band, which began as an intense jazz ensemble in Chicago before morphing into a soul and funk hit-making outfit. Thompson uses archival footage, contemporary interviews, and better-than-decent animation to construct a story that’s as much about White’s legacy — one that’s crucial to Thompson the musician — as it is about White himself. The Questlove-White connection helps the movie go deeper than a portrait by a nonmusician might have.
The infectiousness of Earth, Wind & Fire’s music — from the sinuous smoothness of “That’s the Way of the World” to the muscular funk of “Shining Star” and beyond — makes the case for White’s genius. And the movie depicts the artist’s aspirations to raise consciousness as sincere. But Thompson is cleareyed about White’s various shortcomings: his philandering, his undervaluing and outright withholding from his bandmates (who at one point included two of his own brothers), and more. But with the help of not just the music but the interviewees — Thompson’s pull is such that the first talking head onscreen is former President Barack Obama — the movie is ultimately an extremely apt celebration.
Earth, Wind & Fire: To Be Celestial vs. That’s the Weight of the World Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 59 minutes. Watch on HBO Max.
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