![]() ![]() Subsequent events occur rapidly, starting when Club Macambo burns to the ground - the implication being that its owner set the fire himself, in order to obtain the insurance money - and Chess builds the cutting-edge studios of his own record label, which opens its doors in 1956. because Martin and Brody never make that clear. It would be nice to know, however, whether Chess really believes in the music. Chess clearly has a vision we can see it in Brody's eyes, and the actor's lean, unctuous angularity accents his character's insatiable desire for success. The subsequent odyssey, as Chess and Waters attempt to get this music heard on the radio, also is fascinating for its historical context: the casual manner in which white DJs grudgingly spin "race music" only because its popularity is on the rise and Chess' unapologetic willingness to bribe on-air talent in order to get the record played. Angry but nonetheless able to recognize talent, Chess finds Waters the next day and insists they cut a record. In this fashion, they eventually reach Chess' Club Macambo, where the resident band doesn't back down Little Walter starts waving a gun around, and all hell breaks loose. Waters eventually hooks up with a seriously unstable harp player, Little Walter (Columbus Short), and ace guitarist Jimmy Rogers (Kevin Mambo) calling themselves "the headhunters," they make a habit of crashing clubs and challenging on-stage performers to an impromptu blues duel. His initially unsuccessful efforts are quite touching, in great part because of the calm, unruffled dignity of Wright's performance this sequence establishes Waters as the film's emotional core. ![]() She has better luck following the parallel, post-WWII backstory of Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), a Deep-South sharecropper who, after hearing his own voice preserved by a primitive recording machine, decides that he needs to abandon his "slave shack" and make at least some attempt to share his sound with big-city denizens. Martin's use of voice-overs, sadly, falls into the latter category. Ongoing voice-overs can add clarity and great dignity to a film - Forrest Gump comes to mind - or they can become an intrusive crutch, employed too frequently to patch over gaping narrative holes. and we're supposed to believe that he made it solely because of a stinging remark made by the father of a young woman caught compromised with him?ĭid Chess have no prior interest in music? Was he really merely an "opportunistic Polish Jew," as this film so frequently - and pejoratively - suggests?Īctually, I take it back: Martin's first mistake comes even sooner, by having this saga narrated by a much older Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer), looking back over the tempestuous rise of Chess Records. The questions emerge with the first scene, as the perhaps unwholesomely ambitious Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody, appropriately gaunt and hungry) suddenly transforms from a junkyard dealer to an inner-city blues club owner. That her heart was in the right place is obvious she clearly burned to shine a light on the evolution of Chess Records, the Chicago-based blues label that played such a major role in breaking down the American color barrier in the late 1950s and early '60s.īut passion isn't enough, when it comes to telling a cohesive story Martin has made a movie that treats its key players with distressing superficiality. That would be Darnell Martin, who both wrote and directed Cadillac Records. ![]() Where they can start producing and promoting their own stable of artists. Surprises his new colleague by unveiling a state-of-the-art recording studio, Sound on the radio, music impresario Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) next Having successfully gotten Muddy Waters' (Jeffrey Wright, right) signature I've rarely seen a director who's both adept at coaxing solid performances from a cast, but inept when it comes to putting a film together. ![]() Unfortunately, the script for Cadillac Records is sloppy and disjointed, and the film's overall approach is amazingly clumsy. The music is sensational, and the acting is uniformly strong to my great surprise, Beyoncé is even persuasive with her portrayal of Etta James. Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.5.08.Three stars (out of five). Rating: R, for profanity, violence, sexual content and drug useīy Derrick Bang ![]()
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