SJA123
Dreadful movie with a very thin plot.Miles Davis is deserving of a more full and compelling biopic of his life rather than a movie stretched out from a fairly uneventful period of his public life, plus a bit of artistic license including the reporter character.Don Cheadle pulls off a reasonable portrayal of Miles, whereas Ewan McGregor doesn't really add anything to the movie. The one saving grace is Emayatzy Corinealdi with a touching performance as Frances Taylor, and... of course... Miles' music.Wish I'd put on one of his albums instead and read a book!
jazzfi
Actually, pretty good.. I usually hold so much disdain for all Hollywood movie portrayals, whether they be jazz, doo-wop, rhythm and blues.. I always find them so over the top, ridiculous, more than often inaccurate both chronologically and factually. I thought Bird and Round Midnight were quite disappointing, but this montage of the life of Miles Davis was done artistically well. It's not a biography in the traditional sense with a beginning, a middle, and an ending, but rather selected incidents from the trumpeter's life with flashbacks-- a montage, as it were. Excellent performances, particularly by Cheadle, and especially impressive was the fact that Mr. Cheadle took the time to learn the actual trumpet fingerings and give true realism to this work, as a special treat to the trumpeters in the audience. Worth seeing a least once, maybe twice...
Anthony Iessi
A jazzman's movie. Miles Ahead is a touching tribute to one of history's greatest jazz musicians. Don Cheadle is mesmerizing as Miles Davis. The film itself has all the fluidity and rhythm of a real Miles Davis piece. While Davis riffed on his horn, Cheadle riffs on the cutting room floor. We skip through time, as we discover Miles in his heyday, and his hiatus. Because this is such a rough editing technique to pull of, some of the film seems a bit clunky. Certain story lines don't always coincide with the main story itself. To be honest, I enjoyed Mile's comeback story a lot better than I liked the story of his long-lost love. The journey to get the tape back was really funny, faced paced and loose. Compared to films such as Get on Up, and Ray, Miles Ahead looks shallow. But the film does shine, and when it does, it shines brightly.
leonblackwood
Review: Don Cheadle was definitely born to play Miles Davis, and the fact that Cheadle really did play the instruments throughout the movie, was an added bonus but the storyline was all over the place and you don't really get an insight into the man who was a musical genius. I liked the chemistry between Cheadle and Ewan McGregor, who played a writer called Dave Braden and Emayatzy Corinealdi played Frances Taylor, Miles Davis wife, extremely well. The film is based around a 5 year period, when Miles Davis stopped recording and he went on a downhill spiral, due to drugs, depression and violence. You don't really get to hear much of his music throughout the movie, and the constant flashbacks, spoilt the flow of the film. I was hoping to get a reason why Miles Davis had such a bad attitude and destructive behaviour but the director chose to stick to certain events that happened during that period. His troubled relationship with Frances, and heavy drug taking, played a big part in his constant paranoia and the way that he lived his life on the edge but the one thing that people loved him for, was his music. Personally, I was hoping for more from this movie, mainly because there hasn't been a film which has documented his life but with that aside, you can't fault the brilliant performance from Cheadle, who was the perfect candidate for this role. Average!Round-Up: Don Cheadle, 51, wrote, directed and produced this movie, and he put together the cast and budget, which must have been hard to do, as he was playing the lead. This is the first movie that he has directed, so he definitely jumped in at the deep end, by playing a musical icon. He also produced Crash, Talk To Me, Darfur Now, Traitor, The Guard and St. Vincent, which I found quite funny. His first movie as an actor, was in Hamburger Hill, in 1987, and he has starred in some successful films like Colors, Devil in a Blue Dress, Boogie Nights, Out of Sight, Traffic, Ocean's Eleven franchise, Hotel Rwanda, Crash, Reign Over Me, Brooklyn's Finest, Iron Man franchise, Flight and the Avengers franchise, so it isn't surprising that he has decided to turn to directing. For his first project, he certainly done a good job, in terms of putting in a brilliant performance but the script could have done with some structure and depth. Budget: $345,000 Worldwide Gross: $4.8millionI recommend this movie to people who are into their biography/music/dramas, starring Don Cheadle, Ewan McGregor, Emayatzy Corinealdi, Keith Stanfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, Christina Marie Karis and Morgan Wolk. 5/10
