CINEMA: Cadillac Records

As far as great record labels go, Chess Records is up there with EMI, CBS and Motown.

Founded in the 1950s by a white Polish émigré, Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody), it was fondly known as Cadillac Records because Leonard would buy his artistes a Caddy when they had their first hit. And the artistes on Leonard’s roster had an awful lot of hits as during its illustrious history Chess signed Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Little Walter (Columbus Short), Howlin’ Wolf (Eammon Walker), Chuck Berry (Mos Def), and Etta James (Beyonce Knowles).  All of them became stars in their own right, but behind their sublime music were stories of poverty, hardship, violence, alcoholism, and drug addiction.

Director Darnell Martin tells this story of sex and drugs and rock and roll in straight chronological order, and this no-nonsense approach makes the film extremely accessible with plenty of time to enjoy the music (from Waters’ Hoochie Coochie Man to Berry’s No Particular Place To Go). But what’s lacking is a real sense of time and place, of atmosphere, and of real emotion. In a way, the story of Cadillac Records is the story of how the blues crossed over to be enjoyed by both black and white audiences and morphed into rock and roll, yet here you never feel the deep, dark, tortured history of the blues and what it actually signified. Through the rivalry between Waters and Wolf, Little Walter’s self-destructive nature, and Etta James’ drug abuse, you watch as a rather detached observer, never truly connecting with them or their pain.

On the acting front, the ever-dependable Mos Def makes a delightful Chuck Berry, while Beyonce as Etta James probably comes closest to emoting what the blues are all about.  Jeffrey Wright, being the first person to sign with Leonard, is centre stage as Waters for much of the movie, however in his efforts to be true to the way Waters’ sang and spoke, he renders much of his dialogue totally incomprehensible. So, if this is your kind of groove, then go along and enjoy some fine sounds, just don’t expect to be moved by the action on screen as much as by the music.      Dee Pilgrim