Sam Broussard

Loose with the truth Hollywood style, typical dramatic highlights from a long and complicated story with complicated characters. Everyone should know some version of this story. The mostly-untrue depiction of an affair between Leonard Chess and Etta James was nevertheless very touching. I'm not a Beyoncé fan, mostly because her music isn't nearly as good as that of Etta James, whose role she inhabited, but I thought she sang beautifully and acted effectively. No matter how big a star she is, James was bigger in all the ways that count, and by far the better singer. All the actors portraying Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Chuck Berry, and Howlin' Wolf had my full attention.