Miles Ahead

Dir: Don Cheadle

2016

****

Back in 1999 Don Cheadle, then in his mid-thirties, auditioned for the part of Ali that eventually went to Will Smith who won the Oscar for his performance. During the audition however, writer Christopher Wilkinson, a friend of the Davis family, suggested he would be perfect to play Miles in a film biopic. It was just a suggestion and nothing came of it. Seven years later, Cheadle was surprised to read that Miles Davis' nephew had announced a film would be made about his uncle and he would be playing him. Cheadle became interested in playing the great musician but didn't like any of the film scripts he had received. He decided that the only way he would play the Jazz great was if he called the shots, wrote the screenplay and directed the film. His idea was totally different from the others but the family approved it. Instead of telling Davis' life from start to finish Cheadle gives the impression of the man through an event that didn't necessarily happen. Much of his life and achievements are left out, that's really for others to discover, this is far more of a portrait of the man himself and what became of him later on in his career. It explores his contrasting incarnations, the myths, his muse and the drugs and what they made him into without kicking up the usual clichéd idea of a flawed and past-it musician, although on paper it may read that way. Ewan McGregor plays a Rolling Stones journalist hell-bent on bagging an interview, specifically to find out if the rumours of a comeback are true. The film covers three days of drug fuelled parties, boxing matches, car chases, shoot-outs and secret recordings, inter-played with flashbacks of love, loss and regret - focused mainly on his doomed relationship with Frances Taylor (played by Emayatzy Corinealdi). Cheadle's performances in front of and behind the camera are nothing short of awesome. He looks, sounds and sounds like the man himself because he didn't just get the voice right, he also played his music perfectly, having played Sax and Trumpet for most of his life. He directs the film as if it was one of Davis' pieces, a drum or a cymbal splash is all that divides Davis' earlier, cool and clean-cut persona and his present day, cocaine-fuelled reclusive existence. Each corner of his psyche, myth and music is played out in what is essentially a visual representation of his life played out as one of his songs. He is aptly referred to as 'the Howard Hughes of Jazz' although as the man himself said, Jazz is a poor choice of word to describe the music, it should be referred to as 'social music'. The legend and the contradiction continue in this entertaining and refreshing take on the often formulaic biopic. It doesn't rewrite or reconstruct historical events, it merely dips the audience's toes in the water of a pool they may not have swam in.  A fitting tribute, approved by friends and family, and one of the best edited and directed films I've seen for a long time.