Director Melissa Haizlip brings a justified admiration to this portrayal of her uncle, who would now be in his 90s.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 11, 2021

"Mr. Soul!" is like a wrinkle in time, a time capsule that needed to be opened. In uncovering rare gold, it's a film that reminds us just how much we don't know.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 29, 2021

Mr. Soul! is an effulgent and joyous celebration of the life-changing public broadcasting program. ... Imagine for a moment what pop culture might be like without Questlove and you may have a small sense of what things would be like without SOUL!.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Mar 2, 2021

Stuck between race entertainment and race dissent, as if radicalism is a public service, Mr. Soul is merely the latest example showing how documentaries have become a radical underground industry.

| Feb 27, 2021

"Mr. Soul!" is an enthralling testament to a show that was so far ahead of its time it now looks like a bulletin. One that hasn't aged a day.

| Dec 16, 2020

...the best kind of documentary and certainly one of the best of 2020.

| Original Score: A | Oct 29, 2020

Mr. Soul! is a fitting and well-deserved tribute to Soul! and the visionary Ellis Haizlip, who took bold risks in bringing the show to life.

| Sep 23, 2020

Style itself is one of the film's subjects, not just because of the gloriously out-there early-70s flair (and flare), but because of the defiant Black-is-beautiful aesthetic being championed, fashion as political act.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 18, 2020

As groundbreaking and as important as the James Baldwin doc, I Am Not Your Negro.

| Sep 18, 2020

Centers around the legendary public television variety show SOUL!

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 17, 2020

A great deal of the archival footage excerpted in Mr. Soul is exhilarating. Yet there's a sadness to the show's rediscovery as well, because 2020 America seems just as much in need of its community...

| Sep 15, 2020

All too often our Black pioneers get shuffled by the wayside in American history. Melissa Haizlip's cinematic love letter to her Uncle Ellis Haizlip is right on time and sprinkle with love.

| Sep 15, 2020

An enthralling and illuminating documentary...

| Sep 7, 2020

Mr. SOUL! recalls a remarkable show that has sadly been forgotten in the sands of time.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Sep 3, 2020

After watching this film, both Black and White audiences should be embarrassed that this courageous and challenging show from 50 years ago created by super producer, Ellis Haizlip was relegated to the dustbin, until now.

| Sep 2, 2020

The doc's real draw is the amazing archival footage.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 29, 2020

One hopes more than one viewer of the film sees Soul! as more than just a relic to be cherished, but as an inspiration.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 28, 2020

Essentially, Melissa Haizlip has built a motion picture monument to Ellis and his vision.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Aug 28, 2020

There's a sense of overpowering love and gratitude for Haizlip that's beautiful and wholly felt throughout Mr. Soul!'s runtime, and it's as warm and comforting as the hot milk cake that Haizlip's mom used to make for him.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 27, 2020

Broad in scope and rapidly paced, the film can feel as if it's bursting at the seams. But it acutely conveys the radical joy that "Soul!" inspired, barely contained in the movie's running time.

| Aug 27, 2020