![]() (Berry has already served as the subject for one of the better rockumentaries: Taylor Hackford's 1987 Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock 'n' Roll.) It's all too much and not enough either make the epic the story deserves or don't bother. Still, the parade of famous faces playing famous faces overstuffs the movie with subjects deserving of features but instead treated as footnotes. (He is, however, a central player in Jerry Zaks' Who Do You Love, the other Chess bio that had its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September.) There's no Bo Diddley either, a woeful oversight for a film in need of his hubris and humor. In fact, Phil, who was also left out of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame proceedings upon Leonard's introduction as a pioneer in 1987, is never mentioned at all. The movie is certainly being marketed as a Chess tell-all the soundtrack, due December 5, counts among its offerings Chess standards recut by the film's actors, including Jeffrey Wright's woefully slight version of Muddy Waters' "Hoochie Coochie Man" Mos Def's coy, sly take on Chuck Berry's "No Particular Place to Go" and three tracks by Beyoncé Knowles, whose purr never comes close to approximating Etta James' growl.īut in this version of the tale-told in flashback, with overwrought narration provided by Cedric the Entertainer as Chess producer, session musician and house songwriter Willie Dixon-there is no Phil Chess, only Leonard, played by an actor, Adrien Brody, who, with his anachronistically tousled hair and Forever Fonzie wardrobe, looks as much like Leonard Chess as he does, well, Howlin' Wolf. First, a key spoiler: Cadillac Records is not the story of Chess Records, the blues label started in Chicago in 1950 by brothers Leonard and Phil Chess that featured among its stable of artists Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Etta James, plus many others who birthed rock 'n' roll.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |