In theaters
CADILLAC RECORDS, written and directed by Darnell Martin, 108 minutes, rated R. Starts tonight, Railroad Square Cinema, Waterville.
The new Darnell Martin movie, “Cadillac Records,” is like any hot mess — sometimes, it’s a lot of fun to have around; other times, you wish you could take it down a notch or, in lieu of that, just step away from it altogether. Far away from it. As in the next state away from it.
Thing is, the music makes that difficult to do.
From the director’s own script, the film is a mash-up of the good, the great and the risible. Its strength rests in the staging of the musical performances, which are as good as you could hope. Unfortunately, nothing in the otherwise sloppy, over-heated storyline measures up to them, which is a shame given the source material — the rise of Chess Records during the 1950s and ’60s.
Leonard Chess (Adrien Brody) began that company, which was responsible for finding such R&B powerhouses as Muddy Waters (Jeffrey Wright), Chuck Berry (Mos Def), Howlin’ Wolf (Eamonn Walker), Little Walter (Columbus Short) and Etta James (Beyonce Knowles), every one of whom eventually landed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Chess’ catch was this: If you did well with him, he’d promise to give you the keys to a new Cadillac. And he delivered on those shiny promises, too, particularly every time one of his artists had a hit, which was often.
The question the movie doesn’t fully answer is critical to why it’s ultimately a disappointment. Who was Chess? What’s Martin’s angle on him? Was the man generous with his artists, or did he cheat them out of a fair share of what they were earning for him? Martin suggests the latter, but his movie, which is no “Dreamgirls,” is so conflicted about how it views Chess, the edges are fuzzy and, as such, his character doesn’t come into focus.
Neither does anyone else here. This is a movie of sketches, with people passing by the screen and leaving only traces of their stories behind. We get a whiff of who Muddy Waters was, but only just. There’s a side story involving Berry that could have been promising, but Martin drops it. As for Knowles, her performance as James offers the most lasting impression. She produced the film, and what she created for herself is a role that allowed for one motherlode of drama. Watching her, you’d think she was Effie White — and coming off Jennifer Hudson’s Academy Award-winning performance in that role, don’t think for a minute that was a coincidence on Knowles’ part.
With her hair a towering hive of bleached-blond audacity, Knowles sweeps into rooms with hips that could crush mountains and a mouth that could set fire to a red light district. She overdoses on drugs and collapses on carpets. She hits the booze hard, fuels her diva tantrums with bile and fury, and yet when she sings, you forgive her for everything. She’s that good at the mike, powerfully drawing you into a film whose story isn’t as compelling or as convincing.
Grade: C
On DVD and Blu-ray disc
BODY OF LIES, directed by Ridley Scott, written by William Monahan, 129 minutes, rated R.
Ridley Scott’s “Body of Lies” is a misfire, but not an embarrassment.
It features solid performances from a committed cast, a timely story that plunges into the murk of the Middle East, and a director who seriously wanted to understand and capture on film all of the nuances, complexities, double-crosses and dangers our war against terror has ignited overseas.
Good luck with that, you say? Good luck, indeed. The trouble with the movie isn’t just that we’re still too close to our involvement in the Middle East to see it clearly, but that the movie itself fails to make us believe that it sees it clearly. “Body of Lies” is too ambitious for its own good. It tries to view the Middle East from so many angles, it lacks the critical clarity of vision necessary to carry itself and audiences through to the end.
Leonardo DiCaprio is Roger Ferris, a CIA operative working in Jordan while his superior, Ed Hoffman (Russell Crowe), assists him in Virginia by laptop. Hoffman does so with the help of satellites, which zoom in and out with such scary precision, they allow Hoffman to watch Ferris with ease—at least while he’s outside.
Their mission is more complicated than the cool, hammy Hoffman would have you believe. Ferris has been charged to flush out a powerful Islamic terrorist (Alon Aboutboul). To do so, he has infiltrated himself into the arms of Hani Salaam (Mark Strong, excellent), Jordan’s suave head of security, whose trust Ferris must obtain if he’s to secure the kind of intelligence he needs to bring down his man.
If all of this sounds straightforward, it isn’t. Some will argue, of course, that it can’t be — we are, after all, dealing with the Middle East, which is complicated beyond reason.
But regardless of how good the performances are — and they are very good here — what good are they in a cluttered movie that can’t contain its story or its characters, and which too often lacks logic and narrative drive?
Grade: C
WeekinRewind.com is the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, DVD giveaways and archive of movie reviews. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at christopher@weekinrewind.com.
New on DVD
Renting a DVD? BDN film critic Christopher Smith can help. Below are his grades of recent releases. Those in bold print are new to stores this week.
Appaloosa — B
Australia — C
Baby Mama — B
Bangkok Dangerous — D
Beverly Hills Chihuahua — C-
Body of Lies — C
Changeling — A-
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian — B-
The Dark Knight — A
Dr. Seuss? Horton Hears a Who! — B-
The Duchess — B+
Eagle Eye — D
Forbidden Kingdom — B-
Forgetting Sarah Marshall — B-
Get Smart: DVD, Blu-ray — C-
Hancock — C-
The Happening — B
Igor — C-
The Incredible Hulk — B+
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull — B-
Iron Man — A-
Mamma Mia! The Movie — B+
My Best Friend’s Girl — D
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist — B+
Pineapple Express — C+
Prom Night — D
The Ruins — C+
Saw V: BOMB
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 — B
Tropic Thunder — B
W. — C-
Wall-E — A
Wanted — B+
X-Files: I Want to Believe — B-
Zack and Miri Make a Porno — C+