The thing that marks out this spectacularly honest documentary is Aretha Franklin's melancholia.

It's as if she's been transported there by another being. Her God? She is so in the moment. So devoid of ego, unlike her entourage, as to make it a truly 'religious' experience, not just for her but for the viewer too.

The melancholia manifests itself as a lost look. Separated from the action, the film making onluy there for one reason. To sing.

And there is zero theatrics. Zero showmanship. Zero BS.

Just an honest to goodness outpouring of singing as best as she can muster and her best will just have to be good enough. Cos that's all she's got.I've never seen a music documentary so compellingly believable about the motivations of its maker, that motivation appears to be the love of her God and her fellow humankind.

It's quite remarkable.

"Amazing Grace" (2018 release; 87 min.) is a documentary about the making of Aretha Franklin's gospel album "Amazing Grace". As the movie opens, we are reminded it is "January, 1972", and that we are at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Rev. James Cleveland, the MC for these proceedings, introduces the Southern California Community Choir, and then Aretha Franklin herself. Aretha was on the cusp of turning 30, and at the peak of her creative powers. She opens at the piano, with "Mary Don't You Weep", keeping her eyes closed during much of the song. You listen in wonder and amazement.

Couple of comments: this is the long-delayed release of what Warner Brothers had intended as a TV special, with Sydney Pollack directing. Because of major technical gaffes during the filming of these 2 evenings of music, the film makers were unable to sync the audio to the film properly, and eventually the film was abandoned (the album became the best selling gospel album of all time). Decades later, Pollack, and later Alan Elliot, tried again to sync audio and image, and Elliot finally succeeded. after Aretha's passing last year, her family agreed to release the completed movie. And what a delight it is. The footage from thee 2 evenings is nothing short of amazing. Aretha dazzles, and hence this film dazzles. Her 10 min. interpretation of the title track alone is worth the film. Another highlight later on is "Climbing Higher Mountains" and "Wholly Holy", where the audience just goes bananas in the best possible way. This movie feels like a celebration of life, of music, and yes of the African-American community of that era. If you are a fan of music history, you are in for a treat!

"Amazing Grace" opened recently at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The Saturday early evening screening where I saw this at was attended nicely (I'm guessing about 30 people). You can just tell that the theater audience was really enjoying this. If you are a fan of Aretha or of music history, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it in the theater (if you still can),on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.

I knew this film was a documentary about the world-famous gospel singer turned "Queen of Soul", I assumed it was going to be a straightforward biopic with people talking about her, I didn't know it was footage of an album recording. This concert film was filmed over two nights in 1972 by director Sydney Pollack (The Way We Were, Tootsie, Out of Africa). Aretha Franklin was performing and recording her live album, Amazing Grace, in the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in the Watts district of Los Angeles. She is accompanied by Reverend James Cleveland and the Southern California Community Choir, and a mostly African American audience, but also Rolling Stones stars Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts on the second night. Songs performed during the recordings include: "Amazing Grace", "Mary Don't You Weep", "What a Friend We Have in Jesus", "You've Got a Friend", "How I Got Over", "Precious Memories", "Precious Lord", and "My Sweet Lord". The film was not released as scheduled in 1972 due to difficulty in synchronizing the audio with the visual print. Producer Alan Elliott purchased the raw footage and attempted to synchronize it, but Aretha sued Elliott a couple of times for various reasons. It was finally released a short time after the sad passing of the singing star aged 72. Aretha has a magnificent voice, there are moments where she perhaps riffs too much, but the long notes and big bursts are most impressive. You do not have to be religious, there is a lot of preachy kind of stuff, but that is to be expected. You can just enjoy Aretha and the choir making music and seeing what goes into making what became a highly successful platinum-selling gospel album, a worthwhile music documentary. Good!