CADILLAC RECORDS: Based On A True Story

2009-06-21T19:47:00.000-07:00

THE HISTORY: This film tells the story of an important slice of musical history during which the uniquely American genre of Rock and Roll was born. It also pays deserved homage to the music and artists from whence it came. Writer/director Darnell Martin (I Like It Like That) shows us how the raw musical talent of Muddy Waters, a young Mississippi sharecropper, hooked-up with the street-smart hustler spirit of fledgling record producer, Leonard Chess, spawning a hybrid musical sound that changed the course of popular music in the U.S. and around the world.

THE FILM: From the first scene, when Muddy is discovered by musicologist Alan Lomax in the blistering heat of a Mississippi cotton field, to 25 years later when a nervous Muddy steps off the plane in London for his comeback tour and is greeted by a red carpet welcome from appreciative fans (including Mick Jagger), Martin fills the screen with the passion, heat, aggression and intensely personal music that was the reality of the Chicago Blues scene in the 40's and 50's.

Booze, drugs, weapons, racism, music segregation and "colored" vs "black" are all fair game as the high-life and the low-life battle it out on the streets, in the bars and in the confines of Chess Records' recording studio. In stark contrast, luxurious Cadillac cars are everywhere. They become movie "extras" when a close-up of a sparkling new Cadillac hood ornament slinks across the screen, escorting us into the next scene. Likewise, when the camera pans-out from the signature gold "V" of the Cadillac Crest logo to reveal a river of blood sliding down it's sleek exterior, we "get" the brutality that preceded it.

It is Darnell Martin's appreciation and understanding of the roots of the delta blues music, along with her gift of writing and directing, that creates the opportunity for a very talented ensemble cast to shine individually and collectively. And they do just that.

THE CAST: Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Columbus Short, Beyonce Knowles, Cedric the Entertainer, Eamonn Walker, Gabrielle Union and Emmanuelle Chriqui.

Adrien Brody, a self-described "natural" actor, struts his acting chops as Leonard Chess, the son of a poor Polish immigrant and co-founder of the hugely successful Chess Records. Leonard has a notorious habit of giving new Cadillacs as "gifts" to his recording artists in lieu of the royalties and rights they deserve. Thus, the title, Cadillac Records. Brody is instinctively able to transform the ethically flawed, but mostly well-intentioned Leonard Chess into an ultimately sympathetic character.

Highly respected New York theatre actor Jeffrey Wright is the PERFECT Muddy Waters. He balances Muddy's hard-core masculinity with his delicately soft vulnerability in ways that even the most experienced of actors would envy. That Wright is able to maintain the tension of these character opposites throughout the 25 year lifespan of this film, without even a hint of slack, is acting genius, pure and simple. Jeffrey Wright merits the highest of praise for this performance as well as many more quality roles on the big screen.

THE COMMENT: This film has a huge heart and a deep soul. Darnell Martin is to be applauded for telling the story with integrity and straight-up passion, never veering from the film's intent, never apologetic or compromising, with no agenda other than to tell the truth, and to honor the source of the music and the brilliant artists who created the Rock and Roll revolution. Brava!

A Small Disclosure . . .
I admit it. I have been enamored with the early delta blues sounds since I was a young adolescent. My intention in this review has been to separate my love of the music from the merits of the film itself. I do believe I have succeeded. My recommendation? SEE THIS MOVIE and decide for yourself.

IS ANYBODY THERE?

2009-05-14T14:11:00.000-07:00

with Michael Caine, Bill Milner, Anne-Marie Duff and David Morrissey

A Film Review by Lola Moloney

Armed with the knowledge that both Michael Caine and his wife of 38 years cried when they first viewed this film, and the requisite wad of tissues stuffed into the corner of my purse, I set out to immerse myself in another glorious performance by Sir Michael Caine. As usual, he did not disappoint. Nor did his equally compelling 10 year old counterpart, Bill Milner, whom I had the pleasure of seeing on film for the first time.

Is Anybody There? tells the classic tale of an old man and a young boy whose paths cross at a time when each are stalled at one of life's many crossroads. As their individual struggles to move forward become intertwined, an unwitting alliance emerges, forming the heart and soul of this story.

Set in England in the late 1980s, much of the film's action takes place in a properly dreary seaside house that has been jerry-rigged into a properly dreary "old people’s" home by a middle-class couple scrambling for financial solvency. (Anne-Marie Duff as Mum, and David Morrissey as Dad)

Michael Caine is "The Amazing Clarence," a has-been (and maybe never was) ex-professional magician who reluctantly and "only temporarily" moves into the home carrying a suitcase full of resentments, after crashing his "The Amazing Clarence" billboard truck. Bill Milner plays ten year old Edward, the insular son of the proprietors, Mum and Dad. Along with an insatiable curiosity about death, ghosts and the afterlife, he, too, carries his own bundle of resentments for being ousted from his bedroom to make way for the new resident.

This film has many tasks to perform, not the least of which is to infuse depth and poignancy into a thin plotline and a rather ordinary script. The sole responsiblitiy for accomplishing this seems to rest squarely on the fine acting abilities of Caine and Milner, who rise to the occasion with ease and brilliance. With the exception of a few phrases, the words spoken by Clarence and Edward become almost incidental, as their finely-tuned emotions emerge from a place of honest-to-goodness organic truthfulness. When a pause or a turn of the head speaks louder than the words around it, you know you are witnessing the craft of acting at its most delicious. So adept are these two actors, they could be spewing gibberish and we would still "get it."

Director John Crowley and writer Peter Harness are to be applauded for negotiating a fine line between providing much-needed moments of comic relief, amidst the frailties of mind and body exibited by these aged residents, without making us feel guilty for laughing out loud. An abundance of gallows humor mixed with light-hearted tenderness, sobering sadness, and everything in between, seems to do the trick. This is a nuanced endeavor, that, while not executed perfectly, succeeds at least most of the time.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the film's ability to stave off the predictability of "old age" character stereotypes. Think childishly flirtatious little ladies with too much rouge and bent-over curmudgeons oblivious to all but their flask-swigging and body aches. Equally disappointing are the sprinkling of scenes that seem contrived and do nothing to move the story forward. Think three women sitting on a couch watching TV, the center one staring blankly ahead popping bubble wrap, the other two looking mildly annoyed at the disturbance. Cute. Giggle-generating. Contrived.

These are minor quibbles in light of the stellar performances of a talented cast and the magical quality of a touching story about the farther reaches of the human lifespan.

Warning: this film contains a suicide attempt, a couple of corpses, plastic garbage bags and duct tape, a severed appendage, a séance or two, a ghost sighting, and a peculiar electric chair lift that seems to transport feelings and as well as people . . . who may or may not be alive. Did I mention "dark comedy"?

All this and you will walk out of the theater feeling uplifted and positively thrilled to be alive. Talk about magic!

Afterthoughts . . .

I remember the days when I watched films about the elderly with a comfy sense of dispassionate interest. I did not relate. The notion of a feeble, dependent and perhaps, not fully competent, "me" was nowhere to be found in my psyche.

What a difference a couple of decades makes! Not that I am anywhere near the bottom of that hill, mind you! My point is simply that a viewer's response to this film, or any story that portrays the sometimes not-so-pretty decline of old age, often correlates with the current era of life one inhabits. Is Anybody There? is no exception.

Lola Moloney reviews

CADILLAC RECORDS: Based On A True Story

IS ANYBODY THERE?