MOVIES/Ed Rampell

Sketches of Pain: Miles High

When the Motion Picture Academy considers nominees for 2016’s films, in order to avoid the debacle regarding the awards for 2015’s movies with the “Cloroxed,” all-white Oscars for acting and Best Picture, the voters should keep in mind Don Cheadle’s performance as Miles Davis in Miles Ahead. At times, Cheadle’s rendition of the pathfinder jazz trumpeter and composer, in terms of look and sound down to that raspy voice (due, reportedly, to a botched operation), is uncanny. Cheadle (Best Actor nommed for 2004’s Hotel Rwanda) claims he actually learned how to play the horn in order to more truthfully play the role. This biopic about one of our great jazz musicians should also be considered for Oscars in the editing and soundtrack, plus, perhaps, other categories.

The one hour and 40 minute film focuses on the period in Davis’ life when he sort of “went underground,” stopped performing and largely disappeared from public (and private) view in the 1970s. There are flashbacks to other periods, such as when Davis and his collaborators were giving “Birth to the Cool,” so to speak, and to his marriage to dancer Francis Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi, who starred in Ava DuVernay’s 2012 Middle of Nowhere). Some of the scenic and time transitions are exceedingly creative and clever in this story co-written by Cheadle.

Having said that, the script centers around the more negative, seamier side of Davis’ life, in terms of drug addiction and crime. The film has a significant amount of gunplay and the like, presumably in order to appeal to fans of action movies. Likewise, the screenplay teams Davis up with purported Rolling Stone reporter Dave Brill (Ewan McGregor). During a Q&A after a screening at the ArcLight, Cheadle coyly refused repeated questions about the factual basis for his film (which he also co-produced), including questions about the veracity of the journalist character, who serves as a vehicle for Davis to tell his story.

McGregor’s inclusion also conveniently serves the interests of crafting a commercially-oriented “buddy” picture, pairing a Black and white guy, as in those action flick franchises like Beverly Hills Cop and Lethal Weapon, co-starring Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte, Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, etc.

In doing so, and concentrating on these aspects of the titular artist’s life and in the script, Cheadle cheapens the musical pioneer and his contributions to music. Maybe this is because, in addition to crowdfunding, Cheadle sunk some of his own loot (perhaps earned from the awful Showtime series he stars in?) into the reportedly $8.5 million film, in hopes of attracting as wide an audience as possible, including the popcorn munching teenage male demographic at the multiplexes.

In structuring the movie in these ways Cheadle undercuts Miles’ narrative and trajectory. Cheadle may be an expert in Davis’ back story, but most audience members aren’t. So there is little if any insight into what was eating this tortured talent, what his inner demons were that turned him to use heroin and (in Miles Ahead) cocaine, to retreat from performing and the world, etc.

Hints may be given by a police brutality scene and Miles’ clashing with record company executives, which are among Ahead’s finest vignettes. Racism and the exploitation of capitalist execs of the artist/worker may explain part of his erratic behavior, but what we see on the screen does not flesh out and offer explanations (which, Cheadle said at the ArcLight, was not his intention, which seems more to have been creating an experience based on Davis’ vanishing from sight for about five years). To be fair, there are some insights into what inspired Miles to compose, create and perform.

In any case, Miles is depicted as an abusive wife beater and as a pretty violent-tempered guy. Even if he was a genius, there’s NO EXCUSE for battering your spouse and women (and people) in general or for taking huge amounts of illegal narcotics.

Ahead also makes no mention of Miles’ marriage to actress Cicely Tyson in the 1980s. Here’s the factoid of the day (that may explain a lot?): The best man at Davis’ 1982 wedding to actress Tyson, which was officiated by Andy Young, was none other than comedian-cum-accused-rapist Bill Cosby.

This trendsetting trumpeter, composer, visionary, etc., deserves a biopic worthy of his talents. Unfortunately, ­­­­­Miles Ahead only reaches the high notes intermittently in a flawed film designed to turn a complex subject into a crowd pleaser in order to sell tickets.

Ed Rampell is a film historian and critic based in Los Angeles. Rampell is the author of Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States and he co-authored The Hawaii Movie and Television Book.

From The Progressive Populist, May 15, 2016

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