Cadillac Records

OPENING: 12/05/2008

STUDIO: Sony

TRAILER: Trailer

ACCOMPLICES: Official Site

The Charge
Follow the beat to its source.

Opening Statement
Cadillac Records tells the true story of the famed Chess Records label. In addition to this, Cadillac Records is every musical biopic you’ve ever seen. Yes, it’s giving us a look at the life of Chess Records founder Leonard Chess (the co-founder, Leonard’s brother, is nowhere to be found in this movie). Chess Records was home to a number of influential and immensely talented African-American musicians, including Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer), Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Chuck Berry (Mos Def) and Etta James (Beyonce Knowles). The film does indeed tell their story, but I wish that this story didn’t feel so much like every other story about musicians.

Facts of the Case
If VH1 has taught us anything, it’s that the life of every musician is more or less the same. In the first act, we meet the aspiring dreamers. Quite often these folks are down-on-their-luck nobodies with a lot of talent. They begin to rise to fame and become very popular. In the second act, the artist starts to get too cocky, acts like a jerk, starts doing drugs, drinking, and/or cheating, and begin a terrible downward spiral. In the third act, the person realizes how foolish they have been, vow to change their ways, and find some measure of success again. The end credits then tell us about all the awards the person has won and all of the wonderful things that happened in their life. Ho-freaking-hum. The formula was still working okay when Jamie Foxx wowed everybody in Ray, but it’s getting very old very fast.

The Evidence
I honestly didn’t think that Cadillac Records would be able to employ this formula. Because it was about a diverse group of individuals who had different lives, surely it had no choice but to be different? The film is almost fiendishly determined to make sure that it is not unique in any way. Since it can’t focus on a single individual who happens to be going down the acceptable plot path, it keeps the formulaic structure in place and simply inserts the pieces that fit along the way. Need some success in act one? Focus on Leonard Chess and Muddy Waters. Need some bad behavior and failure in act two? Focus on Little Walter and Chuck Berry. Need some redemption in act three? Focus on Etta James. It’s a fiendish scheme, I tell you.

But you know what? I fell for this sucker one more time. Despite the fact that I profess to hate formulaic biopics, despite the fact that nearly every moment in the film was predictable… I kind of liked the movie. As a movie, it’s kind of lousy, but as a musical… great googly-moogly, Cadillac Records works like gangbusters. The film keeps a steady stream of soulful blues flowing from start to finish, and the bland bits of formula wind up feeling more like commercial breaks in the middle of an exceptionally enjoyable television special. If you’re coming for the drama, you’ll be disappointed, but if you’re coming for the music, you’ll get your money’s worth.

I was also impressed by just how smoothly the film is cast. By that, I mean that every actor playing a famous figure immediately becomes that figure. We aren’t watching Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Beyonce Knowles, and Mos Def… we’re watching Leonard Chess, Muddy Waters, Etta James, and Chuck Berry. Wright in particular is just superb here, demonstrating yet again that he is one of cinema’s finest character actors. Meanwhile, Brody manages to make Leonard Chess a very compelling figure. He isn’t a civil rights activist or a noble saint… he’s just an ambitious, somewhat compassionate and financially irresponsible businessman who wasn’t going to let something as stupid as racism get in the way of a big pile of money. The scenes Wright and Brody share are some of the only strong dramatic moments in the film, as they offer a reflective complexity that can’t be found elsewhere in Cadillac Records.

Closing Statement
So, does the movie work? Yes, but only on a surface level. If some terrific music and convincing performances are enough to earn your 10 bucks, then by all means go for it. If you’re hoping for a musical biopic as effective or insightful as Ray or Bird — or heck, even Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story — then you’ll undoubtedly be a bit disgruntled at the conclusion.

The Verdict
7/10