Ray
Composite Score: 83.43
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Regina King, Kerry Washington, Clifton Powell, Harry Lennix, Bokeem Woodbine, Aunjanue Ellis, Sharon Warren, C.J. Sanders, Curtis Armstrong, Larenz Tate, and David Krumholtz
Director: Taylor Hackford
Writers: Taylor Hackford and James L. White
Genres: Music, Biography, Drama
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for depiction of drug addiction, sexuality, and some thematic elements
Box Office: $123.97 million worldwide
Why should you Watch This Film?
Ray is the 2004 Ray Charles biopic starring Jamie Foxx as the prolific musician that won Foxx an Academy Award for his portrayal. The film also stars Kerry Washington as Charles’s wife Della Bea and Regina King as his backup singer and occasional mistress Margie Hendricks and a plethora of other supporting performers that flesh out the early days of Ray Charles’s musical career. The film follows the artist as he transitions from backup pianist to big-shot celebrity in the late 1950s and 60s and his struggles with heroin addiction and infidelity over that same stretch of time. Foxx’s portrayal and the artist’s fantastic music help make the biopic one of the greats, helped along by its positive story of recovery and redemption.
Why shouldn’t you Watch This Film?
Ray falls under the broad category of musical biopic, all of which tend to have similar stories. Artist starts out as a nobody. Artist gets discovered (sometimes by a good person, sometimes by an abusive one). Artist starts to get big, and they have to make a decision about who to stay with – their past or the money (usually). Artist has some kind of worldly struggle – drugs, alcohol, cheating, abuse, etc. Artist either overcomes the struggle or the struggle overcomes them. The end. Note: most of this is also accompanied by a combination of the artist’s music, concert scenes, and occasional flashbacks if they also had a troubled past. Even though each story has its own unique pieces, it always feels vaguely familiar and can get old if you aren’t branching out.
So wait, why should you Watch This Film?
In the case of Ray, what sets it apart from other musical biopics is Jamie Foxx. The man signed on to play Ray Charles, and doggone it if he doesn’t almost become the artist on screen. Foxx captures the mannerisms, voice, character, and charisma of the music icon so well that his cover of Charles’s “I Got a Woman” became the iconic sample on “Gold Digger”. It might be a once-in-a-lifetime performance from Foxx, but he earned the heck out of his Oscar. It’s one of those performances that elevates a film so much that I didn’t really even mind how formulaic the film’s plot was because I got to watch Jamie Foxx acting it all out as a near-perfect Ray Charles stand-in.
Jamie Foxx becomes the titular musician in Ray, bringing the music and persona of Ray Charles to film in a way that honors the life and achievement of the musician while shedding light on some of his early personal struggles that he had to overcome in order to live a life worthy of the legacy that he created, locking the film into a place on the list of Greatest Films of All Time. Formulaic as it is, Foxx’s performance, Charles’s music, and the more positive ending than most musical biopics of recent history leave this one as one of the best. It is currently available to stream on Peacock if you’re looking for a place to watch it.
