A former Kashmere High School graduate return home after 35 years to play a tribute concert for his beloved band leader, who, during the 1970s, turned the struggling jazz band, Kashmere Stage Band, into a world-class funk powerhouse.
Onreview aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 100% approval rating based on 29 reviews, with an average ranking of 7.9/10.[6]OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 81 out of a 100 based on 24 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[7]
Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle wrote "[The film] tells the story of the Kashmere Stage Band, and before the film is through, this high school band you've never heard of will have earned a top spot on your personal hit parade".[9]
According to Sheri Linden of the Los Angeles Times, "Though [the film] sometimes overplays the sentimentality, [it] gets not just the music but also the sense of possibility for this post-civil-rights generation".[10]
Nathan RabinofThe A.V. Club criticized the filmmakers for not being "interested in peering beneath the dazzling surface". According to him, despite portraying Johnson as a "benign dictator", "[the film] represents a feast for the senses, a soulful celebration of the black musical renaissance of the late '60s and '70s".[11]
Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter called Thunder Soul "[a] genuinely moving and powerful doc[umentary] about one of the great funk bands ever, that just happened to be a high school band".[12]
