Check out Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Summer of Soul review and Boss Baby: Family Business review, both opening July 2. One deserves a salute, the other a spanking.

Summer of Soul Review — So Much More Than a Concert Doc

Few remember, or even knew about, 1969’s Harlem Cultural Festival in Mount Morris Park, where, over the course of six weeks, soul, R&B, blues and jazz greats including Stevie Wonder, Sly & the Family Stone, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Mahalia Jackson, The Staples Singers, B.B. King, Ray Barretto, The 5th Dimension and more, performed onstage.

The lack of awareness may be because in the summer of ’69 pretty much belonged to Woodstock, happening about 100 miles to the north. Or the other seminal music festival’s obscurity may have been because all the remarkably extensive, well shot and truly insightful footage was forgotten in a basement for years…until Questlove (aka Ahmir Thompson) got ahold of it.

Adroitly weaving in remastered concert and audience footage with interviews with those who attended and cultural and political leaders of the time, first-time filmmaker Questlove’s work is extraordinary. He has created a riveting, powerful and inspiring picture of the unifying power of music amidst turmoil and inequity. This exceptional film, officially called Summer of Soul (…or, when the revolution could not be televised) is a window into the soul of the nation at the time, a film that should not be missed.

Rated PG-13

1 Hour 57 Minutes

If this Summer of Soul review entices you to see it, find it in theaters and on Hulu.

The Boss Baby: Family Business Review — Someone Needs a Spanking

All the charm and wit of the original The Boss Baby seems to have melted away, and in it’s place we’re assaulted by a cloying rainbow sugar rush sprinkled with annoying adults, an inane plot and a barrage of overwhelming psychedelic animation. At least the colors are bright.

This time around Tim Templeton and his brother Ted are all growed up, and it’s the second generation of Templetons that deal with the challenges of a subversive school master and most prominently, their dad’s relationship with his brother. Do kids really care about dad/uncle relationships? And why is Baby Corp., which everyone really comes to see, relegated to side show status?

Even the stellar voice work of Jimmy Kimmel, Alec Baldwin, James Marsden, Lisa Kudrow and Jeff Goldblum can’t redeem the thin pulled taffy plot and the manic gag eruption. I just wanted it to be over.

Rated PG

1 Hour 47 Minutes

If, after reading this The Boss Baby: Family Business review, you still want to see it, find it at a theater near you and on PeacockTV.

Check out Lisa Johnson Mandell’s Summer of Soul review and Boss Baby: Family Business review, both opening July 2. One deserves a salute, the other a spanking.