Cadillac Records (2008)

Directed by Darnell Martin. Starring Adrien Brody, Jeffrey Wright, Columbus Short, Mos Def, Eamonn Walker, Beyoncé Knowles, Cedric the Entertainer, Gabrielle Union, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Eric Bogosian, Tammy Blanchard, Shiloh Fernandez, Jay O. Sanders. [R]

Writer/director Martin is in over his head trying to tell the turbulent story of the rise and fall of Chicago-based Chess Records in the 1950s (along with the incomplete biographies of a slew of artists signed to the label), but who could do it justice in less than two hours? Brody is co-founder Leonard Chess (though, oddly, his brother and other co-founder, Phil (Fernandez), barely even gets acknowledged); Wright is Muddy Waters, the first rising star to sign on; Short embodies the volatile master-of-the-mouth-harp, Little Walter; Walker brings out the deep, booming voice of Howlin’ Wolf; and so on. Fragmented storytelling covers a lot of ground, resulting in personas and storylines being introduced, dropped, sidelined, and reinstated without warning. Most of the cast is satisfactory in their roles (Mos Def being far more so while playing that irascibly problematic sparkplug called Chuck Berry), but they rarely get opportunities to really shine, and the filmmakers don’t quite know what to make of them all—some are barely developed at all, and no attitude ever seems to be taken about their flawed, often messy lives (even the epilogue postscript merely recites dry statistics, as if anyone needed a reminder that all of the featured musicians have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame). Cameos include Vincent D’Onofrio and Q-Tip.

55/100