''Miles Ahead'' is a 2015 American biographical-drama film directed by
Don Cheadle
Donald Frank Cheadle Jr. (; born November 29, 1964) is an American actor. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including two Grammy Awards, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has also earned nom ...
in his
feature directorial debut
This is a list of film directorial debuts in chronological order. The films and dates referred to are a director's first commercial cinematic release. Many film makers have directed works which were not commercially released, for example early work ...
, which Cheadle co-wrote with
Steven Baigelman, Stephen J. Rivele, and
Christopher Wilkinson
Christopher Wilkinson (born March 29, 1950) is an American screenwriter, producer, and director. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for '' Nixon'' (1995). , which interprets the life and compositions of
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
musician
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
. The film stars Cheadle,
Emayatzy Corinealdi, and
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British ...
, and closed the
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, i ...
on October 11, 2015. The film takes its title from Davis's
1957 album.
Cheadle took a free-form approach to the film's narrative. Skipping around in time, it depicts Davis' attempts to get his career back on track following a period of inactivity and drug addiction in the 1970s, fictional adventures with a journalist (played by McGregor) who wants to profile him, and his troubled marriage to a former dancer (Corinealdi). The film's score covers, in non-linear fashion, Davis' actual recordings throughout his career, beginning with ''
Agharta'' (1975) before jumping back and forth in scenes featuring ''
Kind of Blue'' (1959), ''
Someday My Prince Will Come
"Someday My Prince Will Come" is a song from Walt Disney's 1937 animated movie ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. It was written by Larry Morey (lyrics) & Frank Churchill (music), and performed by Adriana Caselotti (Snow White's voice in the ...
'' (1961), ''
Bitches Brew'' (1970), and ''
We Want Miles
''We Want Miles'' is a double album recorded by jazz trumpeter Miles Davis in 1981, produced by Teo Macero and released by Columbia Records in 1982. The album combines recordings from the first live appearances by Davis in more than five years, a ...
'' (1981), among others.
''Miles Ahead'' received mostly positive reviews from critics. Reviewers generally praised Cheadle's direction and performance, although some were critical of the plot. The film has grossed over $5 million.
Plot synopsis
''Adapted from
Sony Classics
Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produc ...
''
In the midst of a prolific career,
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
(
Don Cheadle
Donald Frank Cheadle Jr. (; born November 29, 1964) is an American actor. He is the recipient of multiple accolades, including two Grammy Awards, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards. He has also earned nom ...
) disappears from public view for a period of five years in the late 1970s. He lives in isolation while dealing with chronic pain from a deteriorating hip, a musical voice inhibited and numbed by drugs and painkillers, and traumatic memories of his past. A music reporter, Dave Braden (
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British ...
), forces his way into Davis' house and, over the next couple of days, the two men unwittingly embark on an adventure to recover a stolen tape recording of the musician's most recent compositions.
Davis' mercurial behavior is fueled by memories of his failed nine-year marriage (1959-1968) to the talented and beautiful dancer
Frances Taylor (
Emayatzy Corinealdi). During their romance and subsequent marriage, Frances served as Davis' muse. It was during this period that he released several of his signature recordings, including ''
Sketches of Spain
''Sketches of Spain'' is an album by Miles Davis, recorded between November 1959 and March 1960 at the Columbia 30th Street Studio in New York City. An extended version of the second movement of Joaquín Rodrigo's ''Concierto de Aranjuez'' (1939) ...
'' (1960) and ''
Someday My Prince Will Come
"Someday My Prince Will Come" is a song from Walt Disney's 1937 animated movie ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs''. It was written by Larry Morey (lyrics) & Frank Churchill (music), and performed by Adriana Caselotti (Snow White's voice in the ...
'' (1961). The marriage was marked by infidelity and abuse, however, and Frances was forced to flee for her own safety as Miles' mental and physical health deteriorated. By the late 1970s, plagued by years of regret and loss, Davis flirts with self-destruction until he finds redemption in his music.
Cast
"Live Concert Band"
*
Gary Clark Jr.
Gary Lee Clark Jr. (born February 15, 1984) is an American musician from Austin, Texas. He is known for his fusion of blues, rock and soul music with elements of hip hop. In 2011, Clark signed with Warner Bros Records and released ''The Brig ...
, guitar, as himself
*
Herbie Hancock, keyboard, as himself
*
Esperanza Spalding
Esperanza Emily Spalding (born October 18, 1984) is an American bassist, singer, songwriter, and composer. Her accolades include five Grammy Awards, a Boston Music Award, and a Soul Train Music Award.
A native of Portland, Oregon, Spalding ...
, electric bass, as herself
*
Robert Glasper
Robert Andre Glasper (born April 6, 1978) is an American pianist, record producer, songwriter, and musical arranger with a career that bridges several different musical and artistic genres, mostly centered on jazz. To date, Glasper has won fou ...
, keyboard, as himself
*
Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Dav ...
, saxophone, as himself
*
Antonio Sánchez, drums, as himself
*
Keyon Harrold
Keyon Karim Harrold (born November 18, 1980) is an American jazz trumpeter, vocalist, songwriter, and producer.
Early life and family
Keyon Harrold was born and raised in Ferguson, Missouri, United States, one of 16 children in a family of musi ...
, trumpeter, plays on the soundtrack only. His part is mimed by Don Cheadle in the "Live Concert Band" section at the end of the film.
Production
Cheadle originally was drawn to the project to explore the creative process in the approach to composition used by Miles Davis over the many years of his career. According to Cheadle at the
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
debut of the film, the approach to the film was not to produce a biopic but to create plausible though largely fictional vignettes of Davis' life that interpreted the creative process Davis used in the composition of his music.
The idea for Cheadle to star in a film about Miles Davis began when he was auditioning for ''
Ali
ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, عَلِيّ بْن أَبِي طَالِب; 600 – 661 CE) was the last of four Rightly Guided Caliphs to rule Islam (r. 656 – 661) immediately after the death of Muhammad, and he was the first Shia Imam ...
'', and it was suggested by writer Chris Wilkenson, noting that he knew the Davis family.
Cheadle was interested although he didn't seriously consider it until 2006. That year, when Miles Davis was being inducted into the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
, Davis' nephew stated that Cheadle was the only person who could play Miles and that a film was coming with him starring. At the time there were no actual plans for the movie and the comments came to Cheadle as a surprise.
Intrigued by the comments, however, Cheadle met with the Davis family, who pitched him a variety of concepts, none of which interested him.
Cheadle finally brought up the concept of portraying Davis as a "gangster", based on his life in 1945 and the 1970s. The family approved this concept, and Cheadle soon realized that he was the only one with the vision to write and direct the film this way.
The working title for the film was originally ''Kill the Trumpet Player''.
The score for ''Miles Ahead'' used music from Davis's recording career, opening the film with "Prelude (Part 2)" from Davis' 1975 album ''
Agharta''. This transitioned into other periods of his music career, including recordings from ''
Porgy and Bess
''Porgy and Bess'' () is an English-language opera by American composer George Gershwin, with a libretto written by author DuBose Heyward and lyricist Ira Gershwin. It was adapted from Dorothy Heyward and DuBose Heyward's play '' Porgy'', it ...
'' and ''
Kind of Blue'' in 1959, ''
Nefertiti
Neferneferuaten Nefertiti () ( – c. 1330 BC) was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for a radical change in national religious policy, in whic ...
'' and ''
Filles de Kilimanjaro'' in 1968, ''
Bitches Brew'' and
the ''Jack Johnson'' sessions from 1969 to 70, the 1974 ''
Dark Magus
''Dark Magus'' is a live double album by American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader Miles Davis. It was recorded on March 30, 1974, at Carnegie Hall in New York City, during the electric period in the musician's career. Davis' group at ...
'' performance, and ''
We Want Miles
''We Want Miles'' is a double album recorded by jazz trumpeter Miles Davis in 1981, produced by Teo Macero and released by Columbia Records in 1982. The album combines recordings from the first live appearances by Davis in more than five years, a ...
'' (1981).
Cheadle explained to ''
Billboard'' magazine about using this non-linear narrative with Davis' music: "I didn't want to be stuck with one period of his music. I think had we told it in a way that was chronological, was cradle to grave, was standard telling, we would've been pigeonholed into these moments that coincided with the music, and they would've all been given short shrift."
Cheadle has said the casting of
Ewan McGregor
Ewan Gordon McGregor ( ; born 31 March 1971) is a Scottish actor. His accolades include a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the BAFTA Britannia Humanitarian Award. In 2013, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British ...
, who plays a journalist in the film, was partly because the actor had a high box-office appeal in territories outside North America: "I could have cast a huge French actor, or an Asian actor who's big in Japan, China, and try to make it work for that. Because it's all about selling foreign. No needle moved until we cast Ewan McGregor".
The financing of the film required multiple sources including
crowdfunding. Cheadle said: "We crowdfunded via
Indiegogo, deferred payment, I put money in myself. Kevin Hart, Pras, my producer's cousin, my other producer's friend put money in. It was just like that kind of a situation".
[
Filming began on July 7, 2014 in Cincinnati, Ohio, and the first film's first promotional photo was released. Filming wrapped on August 16, 2014.
]
Release and reception
In August 2015, Sony Pictures Classics
Sony Pictures Classics Inc. is an American film production and distribution company that is a division of Sony Pictures. It was founded in 1992 by former Orion Classics heads Michael Barker, Tom Bernard and Marcie Bloom. It distributes, produce ...
acquired distribution rights to ''Miles Ahead''. The film had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center (FLC). Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, i ...
on October 10, 2015. It was released in the United States on limited theater on April 1, 2016 and wide expansion on April 22, grossing $2.6 million in the United States and Canada and $2.5 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $5.1 million.
''Miles Ahead'' received generally positive reviews from critics. Metacritic, which assigns a rating in the 0–100 range based on reviews from top mainstream publications, calculated an average score of 64, based on 39 reviews. , the film holds a 74% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 185 reviews with an average rating of 6.41/10; the site's consensus reads, "''Miles Ahead'' is worth watching for Don Cheadle's strong work on both sides of the camera, even if this unconventional biopic doesn't quite capture its subject's timeless appeal".
In ''The New York Times'', Manohla Dargis
Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.
Career
Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...
wrote that while Davis purists may complain about the imagined sequences in the film, "they'll...miss the pleasure and point of this playfully impressionistic movie." She was particularly impressed by Cheadle's ability to shift between "times, moods and modes effortlessly". ''Chicago Sun-Times'' critic Richard Roeper gave ''Miles Ahead'' three out of four stars and found most of it silly but often engrossing, crediting Cheadle for attempting to make a unique music biopic while giving "a brilliant performance worthy of an Oscar nomination". In a less enthusiastic review, Kenneth Turan
Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...
from the ''Los Angeles Times'' stated the only "fully realized" characters played by Cheadle and Corinealdi were surrounded by a plot he deemed clichéd, unsophisticated, and forgettable. Rex Reed
Rex Taylor Reed (born October 2, 1938) is an American film critic, occasional actor, and television host. He writes the column "On the Town with Rex Reed" for '' The New York Observer''.
Early life
Reed was born on October 2, 1938, in Fort Wo ...
was more critical in a one-star review for ''The New York Observer'', writing that it was overwhelmingly plagued by "hyperbole and innuendo" while taking issue with Cheadle's depiction of Davis and his life: "According to the jazz musicians I know, he was unpredictable and borderline crazy, but nothing like the moody, unhinged and dangerous stray bullet depicted here."
Soundtrack
*See ''Miles Ahead'' (soundtrack)
See also
* List of black films of the 2010s
References
External links
*
*
*
Miles Beyond the Biopic: Don Cheadle Riffs on a Jazz Legend
{{Miles Davis, state=collapsed
2015 films
2015 biographical drama films
2010s musical drama films
American musical drama films
African-American musical films
African-American biographical dramas
Films shot in Ohio
Biographical films about musicians
Jazz films
Miles Davis
Cultural depictions of jazz musicians
2015 directorial debut films
2015 drama films
Sony Pictures Classics films
2010s English-language films
2010s American films