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MILES AHEAD Send This Review to a Friend
Previously showcased at the 2015 New York Film Festival, “Miles Ahead,” now in release, is a dramatic look at the life of Miles Davis, a significant figure in the world of music. How accurate the excursion is can be left to others to determine. But the film makes it one disastrous ride, as we are taken through the trumpeter’s ups and downs, structured around a reporter’s inquiry in the late 1970s and flashing back and forth to tell Davis’ story.
All of this is brought to us by the extra ambitions Don Cheadle. He plays Davis to the hilt, directs the film and co-wrote it with Steve Baigelman. The good and the bad—it mainly belongs to Cheadle. The reporter, Dave Brill, is played By Ewen McGregor. Frances Taylor, the love of Davis’ life, who struggles to put up with him, is portrayed by Emayatzy Corineald.
On the one hand, the biopic is a typical mix of women, booze, drugs, fame and failure and portrayal of its central character as a tragic figure undone by self-destructive behavior. Yet there is a furious energy that drives “Miles Ahead,” abetted by the music and Cheadle’s go-for-broke performance.
At points one may feel enough is enough. But this is film that doesn’t let go. It will leave the memory of Cheadle as Davis, whether or not the portrait is an accurate one. A Sony Pictures Classics release. Reviewed April 1, 2016.
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