Miles Davis biopic starring Don Cheadle - "Miles Ahead"*

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by FrontalLobe, Feb 22, 2012.

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  1. It's Felix

    It's Felix It's not really me

    I just think any movie with. Great jazz soundtrack is worth watching.
     
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  2. Just came out of the theater here in DC a couple hours ago (just opened here on Friday). Fun movie.

    Some will hate it, but I liked it quite a bit. Felt like there was probably a fair bit of 'truth' about Miles within the fictionalized narrative. Cheadle did a great job acting, and a generally good directing (though maybe not award-worthy). And even a fair number of facts surrounding the 1979-era plot-line were (as best I'm recalling), true as well - or certainly based in fact. (Don't want to give away plot details, but what is actually known about those actual still unreleased 1978 sessions is not inconsistent with how they're ultimately represented in the film).

    A net positive, far as I'm concerned. Could have been told with a lot more traditional narrative, but been less interesting. Sounds like it was impossible to get made, so you have to admire Cheadle's willingness to think outside the box and take chances.

    Some of those chances work, maybe some not as well. But still worth seeing. No regrets, and I'd watch it again.

    (While not the foremost expert on Miles, I do have a near complete collection of his Columbia output (including all the posthumous stuff, live and otherwise), and have read half-a-dozen books on the man, so I am fairly steeped in the history. And despite the liberties taken, I thought the movie 'felt' right.)
     
    Last edited: Apr 10, 2016
  3. jkauff

    jkauff Senior Member

    Location:
    Akron, OH
    I just saw it D.C. today, too, and I loved it. The fictional "action" plot has the more traditional bio-pic material integrated very smoothly, so the pace of the film doesn't change too drastically. Kept my interest all the way through, and I could have watched another half-hour easily. If there's any justice in the world of Oscar, Don Cheadle will win Best Actor. You never feel for a moment that you're watching an actor play Miles Davis.

    When the movie goes into wider distribution later this month, I think it will pick up the same word-of-mouth buzz that made Love and Mercy such a success. It completely deserves it.
     
  4. alexpop

    alexpop Power pop + other bad habits....

    Any good?
     
  5. Opinions will vary. I know there will be a number of folks that won't like it, and probably with some justifiable reasons (I started to list some of them, but realized doing so kind of gives away the movie, so I'll refrain for now). But fans will be as surprised as what's left out (and who isn't ever shown on-screen), as anything.

    That said, I really thought Miles Ahead was pretty good (if not quite Oscar worthy) - and it did do good job of getting to much of the essence of Miles, the person. There were SO many stories that could have been included, and yet how many of them were suitable for telling "the story"? And even if you tried to tell the whole story (or a lot of it), how would that feel if it had been a more traditional narrative? I'm not sure a traditional bio-pic would worked. So a flawed movie? - perhaps, but maybe less flawed than if it had been more traditional. Yes, it was a Hollywood fictionalized account, but Cheadle did a great job as Miles, and I thought the script did provide a LOT of insights about the man and his life.

    It was a lot of fun too, PLUS, for me it was GREAT to see Miles in the 70's. There are a lot of different Miles Davises (I've thought that for going on 25 years) -- while he really transformed Music 6-8 times, he also was a slightly different persona just as frequently too, throughout his life (or so I've always thought). It would have been SO easy (SO EASY) to gloss over 70's Miles, and give 'him' the short shrift. Any traditional Miles biopic would have surely hit hard on the Bitches Brew era, but then mostly skipped the rest of the 70's. One could easily imagine going straight from Bitches Brew to the 80's comeback. UUUGH!!!! I would have HATED that, and probably screamed at the screen right in the movie theater. For me, 70's Miles is as key to the man's life as any of his late 50's and various 60's triumphs. And the vast majority of his media appearances (interviews and such), were almost all from the 80's -- so much of what I know about his public persona has been formed by all that footage (and comparatively little similar pre-1980's material).

    Also, back to the movie, contrast with the recent Jimi Hendrix biopic -- Jimi: All Is By My Side -- which was VERY well acted by Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000), and the entire cast. And yet, the story they decided to tell about Jimi was all wrong, and (IMHO) did nothing to really help the viewer understand Jimi Hendrix, the person. So I was really disappointed with Jimi: All Is By My Side, and was desperately hoping Cheadle's Miles Davis movie wouldn't be the same.

    The Hendrix movie didn't ring true for me much at all (despite the really good acting), but the Miles movie -- despite my keen awareness of what was and wasn't true -- the Miles movie DID feel very true to the man (even the fictional narrative that the movie was wrapped around).

    I should add that Jimi Hendrix was really my very first musical love (I had 50+ bootlegs on LP by the end of my freshman year in college), and he and Miles are probably two my all-time favorites. So I feel like I had a really good frame of reference for judging both movies.
     
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  6. jdrueke

    jdrueke Handsome Man

    Location:
    Atlanta, Georgia
    I just saw it yesterday at the Atlanta Film Fest and thoroughly enjoyed it. I even got to chat with the DP prior to the screening. You can't go in expecting a straight ahead biopic, but more of a well acted, well told tale based on fact with plenty or artistic liberties. Don Cheadle was fantastic and it was fun to just hear his music in a theater setting. I could have watched the final scene for at least another hour.
     
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  7. What I liked about the fictitious story set in 1979 (apart from how it felt 'true') -- was how much of it was based on real known facts about Miles that actually happened (though in some cases at different times that were represented in the film). His on-going hip problems, his love of fast cars, his love of boxing, and certainly his love of women (and drugs)... All that was true, and not just side-bar stuff, but more central to Miles (the man, day to day), than most folks were ever aware. For instance, how his hip was (shall we say) "further injured" really did happen that way earlier (in 1969) -- so using that as a plot device in 1979 wasn't entirely incorrect at all (that really happened), only incorrect in the circumstances under which it happened (and when, displacing it by a decade).

    Which is to say that the fictional narrative -- if not the car chases and guns, but the reason behind all that -- was all pretty believable (and not all that hard to suspend my disbelief about, even though I knew (as the movie unfolded) everything that was real, and everything that was pure fiction).

    Pretty hard to do well, and I think Cheadle deserves an awful lot of credit for pulling it off so well.

    Probably doesn't hurt that I've seen (and enjoyed), my share of Blaxploitation movies over the years too -- which this movie owes a little bit of debt too.
     
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  8. BeatleJWOL

    BeatleJWOL Senior Member

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  9. PaulKTF

    PaulKTF Senior Member

    Location:
    USA
    That sounds a lot better than most movies I've seen in the last decade. :)
     
  10. eeglug

    eeglug Senior Member

    Location:
    Chicago, IL, USA
    Thanks to all those who have given this a thumbs-up; I'm looking forward to seeing it.
     
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  11. jdrueke

    jdrueke Handsome Man

    Location:
    Atlanta, Georgia
    I really recommend seeing it on the big screen. It's beautifully shot and it's fun hearing his music in a big theater. It's a fantastic mix as well with a focus on his 70's output, which I love.
     
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  12. Paper Wizard

    Paper Wizard Forum Resident

    Location:
    U.S.A.
    I saw the movie. Cheadle was quite good, but the story isn't. Sorry, not a fan of fictitious stories.
     
  13. eyeCalypso

    eyeCalypso Forum Resident

    Location:
    Colorado, USA
    I saw this yesterday. Unlike most of y'all, I knew nothing about it going in except it was about Miles Davis. It was highly entertaining, pacing is frantic, and over before I knew it, But halfway through I leaned over to my wife and said "I think this is made up." I didn't think the story actually happened but as crazy as Miles was I thought it was something that could have happened. Two thumbs up!
     
  14. Dr Faustus

    Dr Faustus A younger man now getting old

    Saw it on Saturday with my partner, who doesn't really like Jazz and doesn't know much about Miles. I've loved Miles for years and have read a few biographies (including his autobiography which is one of my all-time favourite books). We both really liked it. It's more about communicating who Miles was than about explaining his biography. It's very telling that the end of the movie shows his birth date but not his date of death. It's not that kind of movie. It's like if you want to know who someone is, you can only get so far with the raw data of "born on this day, started playing trumpet on that day, worked with these people...." etc. There's nothing wrong with that - but I'm not sure you can get a feel for a person based on that information. Don Cheadle let's you hang out with Miles in a way. It's fast and furious but fun. Cheadle is great as Miles - I thought he was really impressive. Ewan Mcgregor was there - he was a foil for Miles but it's unfortunate that he had to be cast in this. The music was great, of course. But the best thing I can say about it is that when we got home from the movie, my non-Jazz loving, brass instrument hating partner asked me to put some Miles on and really enjoyed it. So that's a win-win!!
     
  15. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I want to see this just for Don!
     
  16. johnny 99

    johnny 99 Down On Main Street

    Location:
    Toronto
    There are 2 threads about this movie now.

    Someone should merge them.

    I saw this movie last week and loved it.
    Don Cheadle was great in it.

    ****/5
     
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  17. Stephen J

    Stephen J Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin, TX
    Don Cheadle writes, directs, and stars in this film about jazz legend Miles Davis's attempt to retrieve a stolen session tape during his long recording hiatus in the late 1970s. The film's strength is that it doesn't try to tell us everything about Davis - something that would probably require a 10-hour film - but rather it focuses on this small slice of life event to illustrate larger insights about his personality and artistry. It does both pretty admirably, thanks to Cheadle's excellent performance. Cheadle captures Davis's narcissism, genius, arrogance, pretty much everything.

    Ewan Mcgregor, playing a Rolling Stone writer trying to make his mark by revealing more about Miles than Davis would ever want out there, is adequate as Cheadle's foil, and Mike Stuhlbarg is better than that as a Columbia Records producer intent on squeezing new music out of the recalcitrant Davis.

    But this movie rises and falls on its ability to create a tempo, and it does just this, capturing the hectic, nerve-wracking force of Davis's personality. Cheadle isn't always my favorite actor, but he obviously loves Miles and has studied him assiduously, so we get the best of him here. "Miles Ahead" skips by entertainingly, leaving you bobbing your head to Davis's eclectic jazz beats.
     
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  18. Scope J

    Scope J Senior Member

    Location:
    Michigan
    Enjoyed it .
     
  19. amoergosum

    amoergosum Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    "Miles Ahead Blu-ray

    [​IMG]

    Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has detailed its upcoming Blu-ray release of Don Cheadle's film Miles Ahead (2015), starring Don Cheadle, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Ewan McGregor, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Keith Stanfield. The release will be available for purchase on July 14.

    Official synopsis: Miles Ahead is a wildly entertaining and moving exploration of one of 20th century music's creative geniuses, Miles Davis, featuring a career defining performance by Oscar nominee Don Cheadle in the title role. Working from a script he co-wrote with Steven Baigelman, Cheadle's bravura directorial debut is not a conventional bio-pic but rather a unique, no-holds barred portrait of a singular artist in crisis.

    In the midst of a dazzling and prolific career at the forefront of modern jazz innovation, Miles Davis (Cheadle) virtually disappears from public view for a period of five years in the late 1970s. Alone and holed up in his home, he is beset by chronic pain from a deteriorating hip, his musical voice stifled and numbed by drugs and pain medications, his mind haunted by unsettling ghosts from the past.

    Special Features:
    • Commentary with Director Don Cheadle and Co-writer Steven Baigelman
    • Featurette - The Truth: Becoming Miles Davis
    • 2016 Sundance Film Festival Q & A with Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor, Emayatzy Corinealdi and LaKeith Lee Stanfield
    "

    Link: Miles Ahead Blu-ray »
     
  20. amoergosum

    amoergosum Forum Resident

    Location:
    Germany
    I really liked it...absolutely brilliant performance by Don Cheadle.
     
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  21. Jose Jones

    Jose Jones Outstanding Forum Member

    Location:
    Detroit, Michigan
    Was Miles really that hung up on his first ex-wife Frances during the late 70s? Or was that another bit of fiction cooked up for the film?
     
  22. Alien Reg

    Alien Reg Forum Resident

    I quite enjoyed it - I felt the "essence" of 1970s Miles was captured here. I like it that the first bit of Miles' music we hear is from Agharta. Didn't catch that it was set in 1978 - assumed it was meant to be the early 80s. How true is the story about the stolen tape?
     
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  23. Completely untrue. Never happened. Nor did the car chases with guns blazing.
     
  24. Fastnbulbous

    Fastnbulbous Doubleplus Ungood

    Location:
    Washington DC USA
    I think Cheadle was going for something more than verisimilitude, but less than hagiography. These "fantasy sequences" reflect Miles's own self-mythologizing streak, and they work IMO.
     
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  25. Are these "fantasy sequences" identified as such within the film, or would people who don't know much abut Davis be led to believe the events actually happened?
     
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