Heard some praise for a new documentary about the early work of Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda called We Are Freestyle Love Supreme (it’s a Hulu film). Apparently he was/is part of a comedy rap improv group… and since his lyrics are so clever and creative in Hamilton, I gave it a shot.
So… yeah… it’s a documentary about this improv rap group that formed back to the early 2000s, before even In the Heights was a thing. The group has about five members including Miranda and the guy who played Washington in the original cast of Hamilton. I imagine the rest of them have gone on to to do things too… but the movie doesn’t really make that very clear. In fact, it doesn’t make much very clear which is a problem if you go into this documentary blind.
Assuredly everyone is interviewed and they all seem bright, funny, and smart… and the footage of them freestyle rapping based on audience suggestions is indeed fun. And the movie spends enough time on each performer, explaining what they do in the group and how awesome they are. But we just don’t get enough about who they are outside the group, what they did before, and what they did after… except for Lin-Manuel Miranda which is good since he’s the big name but also bad because we kinda already know how things went for him.
So that’s the basic good and bad about this as a documentary. If you aren’t familiar with the group or the individuals in it, this movie doesn’t really do a good job of covering it. It does provide some (but not enough) examples of their talent… and it does cover what they bring to the performances as individuals. But that’s not really enough. It’s not a bad documentary, it’s just gravely wanting.
Score: 72