Finding Fela!

The documentaries that roll off the Alex Gibney production line tend to be at their best when the filmmaker is investigating a big story. Films like Mea Maxima Culpa, We Steal Secrets or Taxi to the Dark Side are assembled with a journalistic rigour and the rhythm of a great thriller, but Gibney's attempts to document the lives of artists have proven less successful.

Finding Fela! is as slick a piece of filmmaking as we have come to expect from Gibney, and it certainly manages to cover an admirable amount of ground, but this portrait of Fela Kuti only impresses in its breadth rather than its depth. As he cuts between a straightforward rendition of Fela Kuti's eventful life and times and the creation of the Broadway musical Fela!, Gibney never seems entirely sure what the focus should be. Finding Fela! boasts some striking footage and terrific music, but it also feels baggy and inconclusive, and an object lesson in why singular, groundbreaking artists shouldn't have their stories told in such conventional ways. [Philip Concannon]