If auteur Terrence Malick had a musical equivalent—a genius recluse who disappeared off the face of the planet—in the world of funk and soul, that would easily be Sly Stone from funk R&B and soul trailblazers Sly And The Family Stone. But whereas Malick reemerged after twenty years and returned to vibrant and essential filmmaking, Stone, aka Sylvester Stewart, did not, and has essentially disappeared from the public view for nearly 40 years (the last interview he gave was in 2004). So, if you want to learn or discover what happened to Sly and why he retreated from the world in “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius),” you’re likely going to be disappointed. This objective, to be fair, is not the remit of filmmaker Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson‘s new documentary.

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His portrait, while suggesting the toll that artistic genius takes on people, doubly so on black musicians propped up to hold up the culture, be our saviors and never fail, is perhaps a more standard music doc celebration. To that end, there’s nothing wrong with that. Sly And The Family Stone is definitely worthy of a definitive documentary portrait, Sly Stone is/was a musical genius, and ‘Sly Lives!’ offers great musical context to that genius. Still, for such a musical trailblazer, ‘Sly Lives!’ does feel a tad conventional and safe (maybe there’s a reason this one is debuting on Hulu as opposed to winning a Best Oscar documentary like Questlove’s “Summer of Soul (…or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)” film did in 2021).

‘Sly Live!’ does tackle its semi-touchy subject from the jump; what happened to this titan of music who ruled the 1970s with hyper-innovative funk, soul, R&B and more, and why, by the 1980s, was the man basically irrelevant and vanished? It’s a rock n’ roll excess tale as old as time, drugs, pressure and burnout—with Questlove trying to underscore the burden of black genius, a heavy crown to wear full of expectations and not a lot of forgiveness.

“Sly Lives!’ then basically does a chronological tour of Stone’s genius and how he got there, going from popular radio host and disc jockey to producer and eventually genius singer-songwriter.

Questlove being Questlove—a terrific drummer, musician and musicologist— unsurprisingly focuses on putting Sly’s innovations into a sharp musical context. There’s no George Clinton, Parliament/Funkadelic without The Family Stone, there’s no Prince, there are just adventurous funkateers to come without Sly and his groundbreaking, complex and yet still catchy af music.

Sly’s humanist, socio-political lyrics are not glossed over, and neither is the Family Stone’s visionary diversity forerunning. Few bands were as multi-colored, multi-gendered and multi-cultured, as the Family Stone; not something you saw in many groups at the time and Stone’s inclusivity pioneering does score some extra points.

Talking heads are the usual sort that you might expect that can fully appreciate his virtuoso: D’angelo, QTip from A Tribe Called Quest, Andre 3000 from Outkast and similar freak-flying funk, hip-hop and rap trendsetters who have gracefully aged into their esteemed grey-flecked emeritus era (Questlove himself a little bit too, but judiciously).

Some Family Stone members offer color, texture and insight, but some of the best clips are of Sly himself from that era in various interviews and often in various states of coherence.

Drugs are a reality, and they begin to take their toll. What once sparks creativity then impedes it and Sly slowly unravels, alienating audiences with rampant tardiness and band members with unprofessionalism. By the time 1971’s There’s a Riot Goin’ On comes around, there are very few bandmates left standing, so Sly makes a solo drum machine album (which is f*cking brilliant to this day, by the way). Two albums followed the still-solid Fresh (1973) and the less successful Small Talk (1974), but the band broke up the following year as tension ran high and their cultural relevancy quickly evaporated.

Sly & The Family Stone burned bright and it was over fast. The rest of the doc basically tracks how the second half of the 1970s got embarrassing as Sly strained himself to regain cultural currency but just should not reclaim any former glory. Things only get worse in the ‘80s and ‘90s with multiple drug arrests and given this is a doc trying to celebrate black genius, the doc rather quickly starts to wrap shit up fast before it all gets too humiliating and bleak to consider. A denouement depicting Sly as a loving grandfather tries to give this legend the proper affectionate send-off he deserves.

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‘Sly Lives!’: should we file it under good doc? Sure, it’s very watchable. But does it really unpack the burden of black genius? Well, that is a thing, to be honest. The culture moves on fast and the standards to which black artists are held are always way more ruthless and higher. I’m just not entirely convinced it lands this thesis as well as it hopes it does. [B]

in “Sly Lives! (aka The Burden of Black Genius),” debuts Thursday, February 13, 2025, on Hulu.

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