Cadillac Records (R)
Mike:
Mike: Tonight we are reviewing Cadillac Records
, based on the true story of blues and rock and roll artists on the Chess Records label.
Scott was unable to join me tonight.
What did I think? I enjoyed this movie, but I admit I am a sucker for music biographies. You’ll see that I gave high marks to Ray and Walk the Line and this movie follows in their footsteps. Watching the trailers you might be led to believe that this movie revolves around Beyonce Knowles portraying blues great Etta James. Actually this movie revolves around Adrien Brody as record producer Leonard Chess and Jeffrey Wright as blues innovator Muddy Waters.
The film has an all around talented cast. Some are here for their acting and others for their vocal skills and at least one for both. Adrien Brody and Jeffrey Wright stand out for their dramatic skills as they have numerous times in the past. Brody is a funny looking guy and I’m sure he knows it, but man the guy is always good. He may never top his role in The Pianist, but in this case he doesn’t have to. Beyonce is here for her singing skills. She is not bad as an actress, but not quite in the league of the others here. Once she sings “At Last” it doesn’t really matter. The other notables in this cast include Columbus Short (Little Walter),Gabrielle Union (Geneva Wade) and Eamonn Walker (Howlin’ Wolf). I haven’t seen Walker before, but his Wolf will stick with you even after the movie is over.
Mos Def puts in another nice performance as rock n roll legend Chuck Berry and he obviously has skill with his voice. It is his day job after all. I’m not really a rap fan, but along with LL Cool J and Ludacris, this man is fun to watch.
It was nice to see Jeffrey Wright in a lead role. I have liked him since I saw him as Peoples Hernandez in the Shaft remake back in 2000. Aside from great screen presence, he has a terrific singing voice. In fact he does pretty well in the company of professional singers like Beyonce and Mos Def.
Like any movie that tells me it’s based on a true story, I have to run to the internet afterwards and read more. Plenty of people going to see this are going to know all about the great Blues artists of the 50s and 60s, but walking in I didn’t. I was very familiar with the music, but not the stories of the artists behind them. I found it fascinating and was glad to learn more. Others probably will too. The music is the star of this story, so if you buy the movie soundtrack or a compilation of Chess originals you come out with something good. .I suspect many people will come to see Beyonce and leave wanting to buy some original Etta James recordings.
It looks like this is Darnell Martin’s first big budget feature film. It looks like most of her directing has been In TV on shows like Life on Mars and Grey’s Anatomy. She does a nice job here and is doubly impressive, because she also wrote the script. As with most biographies, she takes some liberties with the facts, but the story is always entertaining.
How do I rate this? I give the film a 3.5 out of 5 overall and a 3 for musical biography. This movie may not be Ray, but it is definitely worth the trip to the theater. If you are like me, you’ll find yourself wondering how you don’t already own all of this music.
