by Tim Gordon
From the church pews to the dance floor, funk has always been more than music; it’s a movement, a rhythm-fueled rebellion that makes your body move before your mind catches up. We Want the Funk! sets out to capture that spirit, tracing the genre’s infectious groove from its African roots to its worldwide impact.
Co-directed by Stanley Nelson and Nicole London, the documentary mixes powerhouse interviews, electric archival footage, and a who’s who of funk royalty to celebrate a sound that reshaped popular music, even if a few major icons get left in the wings.
Featuring Marcus Miller, George Clinton, Kirk Franklin, Questlove, and others, the doc has the necessary pedigree to lay the groundwork for a fascinating story. The film’s narrative is structured like a live set, starting slow and deep, building groove upon groove, and finally exploding into an ecstatic, all-out jam. It celebrates the genre’s architects and innovators: James Brown, whose precision and drive made him the “Godfather of Soul” and, arguably, the godfather of funk; George Clinton’s Parliament Funkadelic, who turned concerts into psychedelic space odysseys; the fierce reinvention of Labelle, bringing cosmic femininity and fierce vocals to the funk stage; and the politically charged, rhythmically rich Afrobeat of Fela Kuti.
One of the documentary’s strongest assets is how it connects the dots between eras and genres. It doesn’t just linger on the ‘70s golden age; it shows funk’s fingerprints on new wave, its deep basslines reimagined in hip-hop, and its call-and-response spirit living on in modern R&B and electronic music. The cross-generational interviews are sharp and insightful, while the archival performance footage, from sweaty, tight-clad clubs to massive festival stages, is pure electricity.
Visually, the film is drenched in the aesthetic of the era: afros, platform shoes, glitter, leather, and unapologetic swagger. The editing mirrors funk’s off-beat groove, letting sequences breathe long enough for you to feel the rhythm before snapping into the next syncopated beat.
If there’s one critique, it’s that We Want the Funk! sometimes tries to cover too much, packing decades of history into a runtime that leaves you craving more depth in certain chapters. While the doc leans heavily into funk’s holy trinity of Brown, Stone, and Clinton, the minimization of Prince’s contributions and the complete omission of Rick James are glaring oversights, especially given their undeniable influence on the genre’s evolution in the late ‘70s and ‘80s. The result is a documentary that’s engaging and fun, but not always as deep or as balanced as the music it celebrates.
Despite a lag when the doc loses some focus, it mostly delivers a funky good time.
We Want the Funk! is both a history lesson and a party. Whether you came up in the heyday of funk or discovered it through a hip-hop sample, this documentary will have you nodding, smiling, and maybe even two-stepping by the end.
Grade: B-