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Miles Ahead
| Released |
22 April 2016 |
| Director |
Don Cheadle |
Starring
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Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Michael Stuhlberg, Keith Stanfield, Austin Lyon, Nina Smilow, Christina Karis, Morgan Wolk, Chris Hahn |
Writer(s)
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Steven Baigelman, Don Cheadle |
Producer(s)
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Robert Ogden Barnum, Don Cheadle, Pamela Hirsch, Darryl Porter, Daniel Wagner, Vince Wilburn Jr., Lenore Zerman |
| Origin |
United States |
| Running Time |
100 minutes |
| Genre |
Biography, drama, music |
| Rating |
15A |
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Rebirth of the cool.
Miles Ahead tells the story of an artist who has seen better days, attempting to reinvent himself and come in from the creative cold. Yes, it’s time for Don Cheadle to make amends for that terrible English accent in Ocean’s Eleven, with a pitch perfect portrayal of legendary jazz musician Miles Davis.
We meet Davis in his creative wilderness years. Unable, or unwilling, to play like he once did, he spends his days rattling around alone in his large house, taking drugs and attempting to resurrect his muse. Into this unfortunate tableau enters Dave Brill (Ewan McGregor), a Rolling Stone journalist who has heard rumours of a new album and wants to get the inside scoop. As the pair find themselves on a drug fueled caper involving guns, stolen tapes and an extremely dodgy A+R man (a delightfully sleazy Michael Stuhlbarg), we are shown snapshots of Davis’ life, focusing on the breakdown of his marriage to dancer Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi).
The film is certainly a bold and ambitious project for Cheadle as director and star. Rather than using the traditional biopic format, he tries to emulate the freestyle form of jazz, weaving in and out of Davis’ life, taking liberties and layering time. The style veers between the inspired and the ridiculous but for the most part, Cheadle does a good job of keeping all these moving parts in order. It is in his performance that he really excels, as he captures not only Davis’ voice and physicality but also his mixture of cruelty and charisma. McGregor is cruising on auto-pilot so it is undoubtedly Cheadle who does all the heavy lifting in terms of performance.
What’s missing here is Davis’s connection with the music itself. While there are countless shots of Davis mourning the lost connection to his instrument, I could never fully connect this portrayal of Davis with the joy of his music. Nevertheless, Miles Ahead may be a flawed passion project but it is always interesting to watch. An impressive achievement for Cheadle.
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Linda O’Brien |
