Film Reviews

Cadillac Records

• Rating:
• Director: Darnell Martin
• Starring: Beyoncé Knowles, Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Gabrielle Union
• Details: US / 109mins / (15A)

A who’s who anthology of Chess Records, this drama is a play-by-play breakdown of the rise of the label and its stars. The story might be economical with the facts but what is seen here is: In 1948 nightclub owner Leonard Chess (Brody) opens a small studio in Chicago and signs Muddy Waters (Wright) whose minor hits enables the label to grow. As time moves on and the music changes, Chess records Etta James (Knowles), Chuck Berry (Def), Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker) and many more. However, as confusion over royalties force the musicians to borrow money, a divide grows between the stars and their Svengali boss Chess. In making a film encompassing several characters lives over roughly seventeen years something was always going to be missing; that ‘something’ here is conflict and drama. Although always interesting and sometimes so cool it makes you smile, there’s not enough resistance, not much stopping these musical gods from realising their dream. The audience observes the goings on from a distance and because there are so many characters, the viewers never really get to know them intimately. Maybe the scope was too wide. There is a lot to like here, however. Sometimes funny (Muddy, upon meeting the Stones, calls Mick Jagger a ‘skinny motherf***er’), fun (watching blues give birth to rock and roll and then soul) and we’re never a few minutes away from a stone cold classic tune (usually accompanied by a montage), the running time zips by. The performances have to be good to stand up to the pop standards on show and they don’t let the side down: Brody is his usual dependable self; Walker brings an edginess to Wolf; Knowles gets better and better and puts her heart into James; Def is cool as Berry; and Wright, whose Waters is given the most screen time but is ignored by the story and leaves him with nothing to do but observe, delivers the goods.

Review by Gavin Burke