Actor Don Cheadle makes his directorial debut with passion project Miles Ahead, a unconventional biopic that explores the life of legendary jazz trumpeter Miles Davis. Just as Davis poured his entire being into his music, Cheadle does the same with Miles Ahead, producing, directing, co-writing and starring in it. While it’s not a perfect directorial debut or biopic, it gets a lot right and doesn’t go the conventional route as so many films of this genre do.
Cheadle doesn’t glamorize David, starting the film off in the late 70s era that featured a Davis in a sullen state. He just wants to be left alone, but his wishes are disrupted when Dave (Ewan McGregor) a reporter for Rolling Stone arrives at his home and wants to know what Davis has been up to in his year away from the public eye. There’s a coveted tape recording of Davis’ that music manager Harper Hamilton (Michael Stuhlbarg) wants to get his hands on to help the rise of his new client Junior (Keith Stanfield) with a record label. There’s guns, car chases, and all kinds of wild drama. Only, most of this came from the imagination of Cheadle, who co-wrote the script with Steven Baigelman, who took some creative liberties to help propel the story forward.
The heart of the film lies in Davis’ true romantic relationship with former wife Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi). We see them at their good, and their bad, and Cheadle integrates all of these memories with flashbacks that also integrate in the present. This Davis is a weathered man who clearly has a piece of his heart missing, a wound that was self-inflicted by Davis himself. Sure, this is a very familiar tale of musicians in general, and in biopics, but it works because of the fine performances from Davis and Corinealdi.
Cheadle proves that he’s a capable director with a great visual eye and a keen sense of how to combine the world of music and film and create a dazzling electric ride that is a joy for the senses. There’s a balance at play between the scenes of the present day and looks into the past, and at times it does feel like a few different films shoehorned into one. But considering its his first effort, Cheadle makes some bold risks and doesn’t take any safe assured easy routes, and that’s certainly something worth celebrating.
By no means is Miles Ahead a perfect Miles David biopic, but it’s a creative one that doesn’t set out to just show you who the man it, but allow you to come into his world view and get a sense for what he was seeing and feeling. Now that is what filmmaking is all about.
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