“Keep On Keepin’ On” Review

Keep On Keepin’ On is one of those documentaries with a story that would cause most viewers to roll their eyes if it were put into a fiction film. A legendary jazz musician mentors a young musical prodigy, all while he suffers from failing health and the student is blind? That sounds more like a parody of a movie made to cash in on the Dead-Poets-Society-inspired “godlike teacher” fad than anything else. And yet it really happened, and director Al Hicks and his crew were along for the ride.

That story is the strongest part of Keep On Keepin’ On, and its Finding-Forrester-esque quality is what separates it from traditional biographical documentaries. The film could have taken the usual biopic approach to its main character, Clark Terry. It could have chronologically followed his life via stock footage and the commentary of friends, family, and experts in his field, with scenes from his current life interspersed. And there is a degree of that, but the relationship between Terry and his mentee, Justin Kauflin, gives the movie a strong narrative spine and, more importantly, an emotional throughline unlike most other biographical docs I’ve seen.

You might not know who Clark Terry is, but over the course of his more than 70 years in music, he’s been a tremendous influence on jazz, swing, and bebop. He mentored Miles Davis and Quincy Jones. He performed with both Count Basie and Duke Ellington. He was the first black musician on staff at The Tonight Show. And even bedridden at age 89, which is how the film introduces him, he’s still able to dictate a tune with uncanny precision. Meanwhile, teenage piano player Justin has oodles of talent, but his nerves are shot every time he goes up before an audience. The movie follows the pair for several years, as Terry’s diabetes-inflicted illnesses take a toll on his body. Eventually, it all leads up to an international competition in which Justin’s been invited to participate.

The tender bond between these two unlikely friends (Clark outright says that Justin is like one of his own sons by now) forms what are by far the best parts of the doc. The support they provide one another as each deals with the ways their bodies are failing them is touching in a completely non-saccharine way. It’s somewhat akin to Life Itself, which also depicted how people deal with degrading health. Like Roger Ebert, Clark Terry maintains an admirable level of grace throughout his trials. The movie’s title is an expression of his spirit. He’s 93 now and still keepin’ on, which is encouraging.

It’s a shame so much of the rest of Keep On Keepin’ On is going through the motions of a biographical doc. More nonfiction filmmakers need to think in terms of how fictional stories are told, and remember what is and isn’t important in those stories. A lot of details about Terry’s background would be necessary if this were an educational film, but in a “normal” movie, sequences dumping this info on the audience would be decried as baldly dull exposition. And such is the case here. Routine fact-spewing is the documentary version of “as you know” dialogue, and viewers and critics shouldn’t stand for it any longer. It drags down too many films that could have been great, like this one, to the level of “good enough.”

Grade: C+