''Jimi: All Is by My Side'' is a 2013 internationally co-produced

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curric ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

about

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

, written and directed by

John Ridley John Ridley IV (born October 1, 1964) is an American screenwriter, television director, novelist, and showrunner, known for '' 12 Years a Slave'', for which he won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. He is also the creator and showrunn ...

. The film tells the story of Hendrix's career beginnings, through his arrival in London, the creation of

The Jimi Hendrix Experience James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...

and the beginning of his fame prior to his performance at the

Monterey Pop Festival The Monterey International Pop Festival was a three-day music festival held June 16-18, 1967, at the Monterey County Fairgrounds in Monterey, California. The festival is remembered for the first major American appearances by the Jimi Hendrix Ex ...

. It was screened in the Special Presentation section at the

2013 Toronto International Film Festival The 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and 15, 2013. ''The Fifth Estate (film), The Fifth Estate'' was selected as the opening film and ''Life of Crime (film), Life o ...

and at the

South by Southwest film festival South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has continued growing in both s ...

and was released in the UK on 8 August 2014. The film screened at the

New Zealand International Film Festival The New Zealand International Film Festival (NZIFF) () is a film festival held annually across New Zealand. The festival is operated by the New Zealand Film Festival Trust. It programmes international and New Zealand films. History The festiva ...

(NZIFF) on 26 July 2014.

Cast

Production

The film does not include any songs written by Hendrix, as the filmmakers' request to use them was denied by Experience Hendrix LLC (Hendrix's estate). Instead, the film set in London in 1966 and 1967 includes the songs that Hendrix performed during those years, shortly before the release of his debut album, ''

Are You Experienced ''Are You Experienced'' is the debut studio album by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, released in May 1967. The album was an immediate critical and commercial success, and is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time. It features J ...

''. All musical parts were played by

Waddy Wachtel Robert "Waddy" Wachtel (born May 24, 1947) is an American musician, composer and record producer, most notable for his guitar work. Wachtel has worked as session musician for other artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Beth Hart, Stevie Nicks, Miranda ...

(guitar),

Leland Sklar Leland Bruce Sklar (born May 28, 1947) is an American bassist and session musician. He rose to prominence as a member of James Taylor's backing band, which coalesced into a group in its own right, The Section, which supported so many of Asylu ...

(bass),

Kenny Aronoff Kenneth D. Aronoff (born March 7, 1953) is an American drummer, best known for his work as a session and touring musician. He has toured and recorded with a wide range of artists throughout his career, including the Rolling Stones, the Smashing ...

(drums). Wachtel wrote short segments of music for the film that sound similar to the Experience's early songs.

Reception

Box office

''All Is by My Side'' has grossed $340,911 in the United States and Canada and $586,163 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $927,074, plus $67,173 with home video sales, against a production budget of $5 million.

Critical response

''Jimi: All Is by My Side'' received a rating of 67% on

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, with an average rating of 6/10 based on 83 reviews. The site's consensus states: "It's uneven—and it lacks the primal power of its subject's classic recordings—but ''Jimi: All Is By My Side'' offers a well-acted alternative take on the Hendrix myth." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a rating of 66 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". On its release,

Kathy Etchingham Kathleen Mary Etchingham (born 18 June 1946) is an English writer known from the Swinging London music scene of the 1960s and for her relationship with Jimi Hendrix. Early life Etchingham was born in Derby, the daughter of Charles Etchingham, ...

, who was not consulted during production, strongly criticised the film's dramatization of her relationship with Hendrix, describing it as "absolute nonsense".

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jimi All Is By My Side 2013 films 2013 drama films 2013 biographical drama films Irish biographical drama films British biographical drama films Biographical films about musicians Films set in the 1960s Films directed by John Ridley Films with screenplays by John Ridley Cultural depictions of Jimi Hendrix Cultural depictions of the Rolling Stones Cultural depictions of the Beatles 2010s English-language films 2010s British films English-language biographical drama films