【Mika Muroi Archives】

Here's a Watch of the Week two-fer for you. I'm recommending a great,Mika Muroi Archives new documentary on Hulu, but after you finish you're definitely going to want to see more. And I'm happy to inform you that's an achievable dream.

We Are Freestyle Love Supreme, which Hulu released on July 17, takes a look at an improv troupe with a truly unique twist: Freestyle Love Supreme delivers their comedy and storytelling in the form of freestyle rap. There's beatboxing and party time vibes and no small amount of audience participation.

There's also the small fact that Hamilton and In the Heightscreator Lin-Manuel Miranda is a co-founder of the group, alongside Thomas Kail, who directed both of Miranda's Broadway hits, and Anthony Veneziale, the group's effortlessly affable MC.

The documentary, which commendably doesn't hinge its entire premise on Miranda's name recognition, offers up a detailed look at the group's beginning in the early aughts, and then follows their development all the way through to the founding of their training academy and successful Broadway run that kicked off at the end of 2019.

We Are Freestyle Love Supreme is a showcase for the brilliant on-the-spot creativity that defines each performance.

The documentary works as well as it does due in large part to the generous helping of archival footage it dishes out, and the level of detail that comes with it. Director Andrew Fried spent years following the group and documenting their development, so we're seeing Miranda, Kail, and Chris Jackson, Hamilton's original George Washington, doing their creative thing before mega-fame came a-calling.

In a lot of ways, We Are Freestyle Love Supremeis just a showcase for the brilliant on-the-spot creativity that defines each of the group's performances. Fried is good at getting out of the way and letting the craft speak for itself. Performance footage is interspersed with interviews and archival behind the scenes stuff as well, but all of it exists to uplift the individual members and their unique talents.

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Take Utkarsh Ambudkar, who you may remember from his electrifying performance at the Academy Awards show in Feb. 2020. There's a whole segment of the documentary devoted to chronicling his arrival in the group and showcasing his jaw-dropping talents.

Everyone gets a stretch of scenes in the spotlight. The documentary is an informative history lesson that's incredibly watchable thanks to how it weave in performance footage. But it also lifts up the individual members in a way that highlights the group's core messages of love and positivity.

The only real downside is how the necessities of documentary storytelling leaves viewer wanting more on the performance front. Clearly there's more footage of this crew making magic together. And yes, the whole premise of a Freestyle Love Supreme show is to give the audience a fleeting performance that they enjoy in the moment and treasure long after, in part because the specifics can never be fully recreated.

We Are Freestyle Love Supreme -- Well before the world knew of the Tony award-winning Broadway musicals Hamilton and In The Heights, Lin-Manuel Miranda was in an improvisational hip-hop group called Freestyle Love Supreme along with director Thomas Kail and performers Christopher Jackson and Anthony Veneziale. Filmmaker Andrew Fried began chronicling the group in the summer of 2005, documenting the early days of Freestyle Love Supreme beatboxing and rapping on the sidewalks—unaware of how their story would unfold. Fourteen years later, Fried captures them reuniting for a series of shows in New York City that led to a triumphant run on Broadway. Both poignant and inspired, We Are Freestyle Love Supreme recalls the creative dreams of youth and why this show still means so much to these accomplished performers. Freestyle Love Supreme performs at the Greenwich House Theater. (Photo courtesy of Hulu) Credit: hulu

None of that changes the fact that the documentary is a tiny taste of something that feels genuinely special. Thankfully, it's not the only place we can turn for a Freestyle Love Supreme fix while everyone is locked down and live shows feel like a distant memory.

SEE ALSO: 'Hamilton' burnishes its own legacy with a spectacular live recording

As you'll learn from the documentary, the group had a short-lived series that ran for 11 episodes on the now-defunct Pivot network. I immediately went out and bought the entire season on YouTube after watching the documentary.

It's great. Certainly more produced and polished than a live set would be. There are brief sketches informed by (and riffing on) things that happen during the live stage moments. The performances themselves are also no doubt trimmed down to make them fit into each 30-minute episode.

The series is nonetheless a worthy showcase of what Freestyle Love Supreme is all about. Especially after watching the documentary and getting a sense of each performance's basic format and recurring improv games. Fried's in-depth history lesson left me wanting more and the series serves it up.

Look for We Are Freestyle Love Supremeon Hulu and the Pivot TV series on YouTube or Amazon.

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Topics Hulu