Post by caitlen on Dec 11, 2008 11:37:29 GMT -5
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Cadillac Records
I'm not going to pretend that Darnell Martin's Cadillac Records has much to do with the actual history of Chess Records, but this rollicking story of the rise of blues icons Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Little Walter (Columbus Short), and Etta James (Beyonce Knowles) crackles with the energy and unadorned emotion of their music. Wright is a marvel; he has long been at the top of my list of actors guaranteed to win an Oscar someday. Martin's script doesn't spend much time on the bluesman-as-tomcat cliches. I loved the complicated feeling of Muddy's relationship with his wife Geneva (Gabrielle Union, one of my biggest film crushes and finally in a good role) and the growing realization that he isn't getting his financial due from label founder Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody).
The conception of Leonard Chess is the movie's biggest problem. Chess was willing to go to extremes to get Muddy's music played in the early days; he pays off a Mississippi DJ (Vincent D'Onofrio) to break the first Chess single on Southern radio. Yet there's no question that Chess took advantage of his talent, fudging the distinction between royalties and personal loans and habitually buying off the musicians with new cars. Martin can't quite drop the hammer on him though; as the
'60s begin to get ugly Chess is last seen getting mugged in an alley and then dying of a heart attack as he leaves his office for the last time. Brody does manage to work up some erotic heat in his big scene with Knowles, who does the best work of her career here and finds the scared young woman under James's badass exterior. The rich cast also includes a witty Mos Def as Chuck Berry. I absolutely believed this was the same man who blows up at fellow musicians in the Hail,Hail, Rock'n'Roll documentary. Eamonn Walker (who appears to be the size of an NFL lineman) left me wanting more in his too-brief role as Howlin' Wolf. Cadillac Records could have used a stronger narrative focus; Chess seems too much like a bad business man as opposed to an opportunist. But it is a needed film about a major part of our musical history - let's hope that it inspires some leaner and meaner efforts in the same vein.
crowesmostlymovies.blogspot.com/2008/12/cadillac-records.html
Cadillac Records
I'm not going to pretend that Darnell Martin's Cadillac Records has much to do with the actual history of Chess Records, but this rollicking story of the rise of blues icons Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Little Walter (Columbus Short), and Etta James (Beyonce Knowles) crackles with the energy and unadorned emotion of their music. Wright is a marvel; he has long been at the top of my list of actors guaranteed to win an Oscar someday. Martin's script doesn't spend much time on the bluesman-as-tomcat cliches. I loved the complicated feeling of Muddy's relationship with his wife Geneva (Gabrielle Union, one of my biggest film crushes and finally in a good role) and the growing realization that he isn't getting his financial due from label founder Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody).
The conception of Leonard Chess is the movie's biggest problem. Chess was willing to go to extremes to get Muddy's music played in the early days; he pays off a Mississippi DJ (Vincent D'Onofrio) to break the first Chess single on Southern radio. Yet there's no question that Chess took advantage of his talent, fudging the distinction between royalties and personal loans and habitually buying off the musicians with new cars. Martin can't quite drop the hammer on him though; as the
'60s begin to get ugly Chess is last seen getting mugged in an alley and then dying of a heart attack as he leaves his office for the last time. Brody does manage to work up some erotic heat in his big scene with Knowles, who does the best work of her career here and finds the scared young woman under James's badass exterior. The rich cast also includes a witty Mos Def as Chuck Berry. I absolutely believed this was the same man who blows up at fellow musicians in the Hail,Hail, Rock'n'Roll documentary. Eamonn Walker (who appears to be the size of an NFL lineman) left me wanting more in his too-brief role as Howlin' Wolf. Cadillac Records could have used a stronger narrative focus; Chess seems too much like a bad business man as opposed to an opportunist. But it is a needed film about a major part of our musical history - let's hope that it inspires some leaner and meaner efforts in the same vein.
crowesmostlymovies.blogspot.com/2008/12/cadillac-records.html