MILES AHEAD
***
Director: Don Cheadle
Screenwriters: Don Cheadle and Steven Baigelman
Principal cast:
Don Cheadle
Ewan McGregor
Emayatazy Corinealdi
Lakeith Lee Stanfield
Brian Bowman
Michael Stuhlbarg
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 100 mins.
Australian release date: 16 June 2016
Miles Dewey Davis III, better known simply as Miles Davis, was one of the world’s most influential jazz musicians from the 1940s to the ‘80s. He was also a complex character with an exuberant personality; a man who lived on the edge, especially during a dark hiatus when he bailed out, living as a drug-addled recluse with a penchant for cocaine. Don Cheadle, who plays Davis here, also directed, produced and co-wrote the screenplay of this idiosyncratic, semi-fictional bio-pic - Miles Ahead.
The story takes place in the mid ‘70s during Davis’s self-imposed exile from music and flashes back to the more sober moments in his life when he was married to the beautiful dancer Frances Taylor (Emayatazy Corinealdi), with whom he had a notoriously tempestuous relationship. Cheadle wanted to avoid the usual tropes employed in bio-pics so he created a fictional character claiming to be a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, Dave Braden, as a way of drawing out Davis’s story. Braden (Ewan McGregor) seems determined to interview Davis to get the scoop on his latest work but could be trying to purloin the tape of these sessions for himself. This recording is also being hotly pursued by Davis’s record company executives, frustrated by the fact that he has not delivered an album for some time. The ensuing drama has Davis producing a gun in the offices of CBS, procuring cocaine and heroin with the aid of Braden, and fighting off various badasses intent on stealing the demo tape.
Cheadle’s performance is pitch-perfect, complete with the distinctive voice and attitude that Miles was famous for. He and McGregor work well together, at one point being disparagingly referred to as “the junkie and the flunky.” As they go about their business the action is sometimes reminiscent of a Keystone Kops movie, the madcap proceedings being so slapstick and off-the-wall, however this could be read as Cheadle riffing on Davis’s life in much the same free-wheeling way that the great trumpeter would do with his music.
Miles Ahead is not a perfect film but it’s worth the price of admission for the fine performance by Cheadle, a performance which may well garner him an Oscar nom. It delivers the message that while much of Miles Davis’s music is flawless, the man himself was badly flawed.
Screenwriters: Don Cheadle and Steven Baigelman
Principal cast:
Don Cheadle
Ewan McGregor
Emayatazy Corinealdi
Lakeith Lee Stanfield
Brian Bowman
Michael Stuhlbarg
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 100 mins.
Australian release date: 16 June 2016
Miles Dewey Davis III, better known simply as Miles Davis, was one of the world’s most influential jazz musicians from the 1940s to the ‘80s. He was also a complex character with an exuberant personality; a man who lived on the edge, especially during a dark hiatus when he bailed out, living as a drug-addled recluse with a penchant for cocaine. Don Cheadle, who plays Davis here, also directed, produced and co-wrote the screenplay of this idiosyncratic, semi-fictional bio-pic - Miles Ahead.
The story takes place in the mid ‘70s during Davis’s self-imposed exile from music and flashes back to the more sober moments in his life when he was married to the beautiful dancer Frances Taylor (Emayatazy Corinealdi), with whom he had a notoriously tempestuous relationship. Cheadle wanted to avoid the usual tropes employed in bio-pics so he created a fictional character claiming to be a writer for Rolling Stone magazine, Dave Braden, as a way of drawing out Davis’s story. Braden (Ewan McGregor) seems determined to interview Davis to get the scoop on his latest work but could be trying to purloin the tape of these sessions for himself. This recording is also being hotly pursued by Davis’s record company executives, frustrated by the fact that he has not delivered an album for some time. The ensuing drama has Davis producing a gun in the offices of CBS, procuring cocaine and heroin with the aid of Braden, and fighting off various badasses intent on stealing the demo tape.
Cheadle’s performance is pitch-perfect, complete with the distinctive voice and attitude that Miles was famous for. He and McGregor work well together, at one point being disparagingly referred to as “the junkie and the flunky.” As they go about their business the action is sometimes reminiscent of a Keystone Kops movie, the madcap proceedings being so slapstick and off-the-wall, however this could be read as Cheadle riffing on Davis’s life in much the same free-wheeling way that the great trumpeter would do with his music.
Miles Ahead is not a perfect film but it’s worth the price of admission for the fine performance by Cheadle, a performance which may well garner him an Oscar nom. It delivers the message that while much of Miles Davis’s music is flawless, the man himself was badly flawed.
