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Cadillac Records (2008)

Director: Darnell Martin

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From Time Out New York

Ah, the race-conscious musical biopic. Cadillac Records, an earnest, raucous but minor film about the trajectory of independent R&B label Chess and its profound impact on rock & roll, will round out a nice DVD box set with Ray and Talk to Me about how music brought down segregation barriers and gave opportunity, self-respect and wealth to black people—all at a cost, sure, but in a way that turns that hardship into songs of redemption.

As with any movie that re-creates outsize performers, the pleasures of Cadillac Records stem from watching the actors channel their respective icons: Jeffrey Wright delivers a ferocious Muddy Waters, Eamonn Walker is downright chilling as Howlin’ Wolf, Beyoncé Knowles conjures Etta James with sass and verve, and Mos Def is delirious as Chuck Berry. (Adrien Brody’s straitlaced Leonard Chess is simply journeyman’s work.) But prodigious mimicry is not the same as an engaging plot, and the boom-bust-aftermath patterns of most pop-culture chronicles is inescapable quicksand for so many filmmakers. Plot points that should shake like a roller-coaster ride just come off as rote recitations of celebrity-lifestyle hazards.

But Darnell Martin’s film does have the charming good fortune to hit theaters only a month after this country’s transformation into an Obama Nation, and the timing might make its familiar themes resonate that much more deeply. Midcentury’s endemic racism seems so completely unfathomable that to see it again, however familiar the tale, seems like a broadcast from another planet.

Author: Stephen Garrett 2008-12-02 17:13:05

Time Out New York Issue 688: November 27 - December 3, 2008

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User reviews of this film

  • Ray said...
    Posted on Dec 05 2008 13:51 It is not just the racism. It is the new york snobbery. I guess that movies about culture that do not originate on the island of manhattan are to be denigrated. All I have to say is that the president is from the south side of Chicago and when he left New York he chose to come here to live and work.... Chicago is where things happen without the snobbery
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  • Jackie said...
    Posted on Dec 05 2008 10:34 I think your review is Midcentury endemic racism! You belittle this film and reduce it to a movie that Black people will like. When this movie comes out in DVD I will be proud to add it to my collection of boxed sets which include Ray and Talk to me. Music did not give all black people "self respect" they already had it. I hope your tirade of what music did for blacks is not meant to be a demeaning and disrespectful to some of the greatest artist who paved the way for so many other artist black and white.
    Yes the Nation may be transforming into an "Obama Nation", yet I suspect that it will not change your lack of respect for Black movies .
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Cadillac Records

Cast & crew

Director: Darnell Martin

Cast: Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Beyoncé Knowles, Eamonn Walker, Mos Def, Gabrielle Union, Columbus Short, Cedric the Entertainer, Emmanuelle Chriqui full cast

Rated: R

Duration: 108 mins

US Release: Dec 5 2008

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