Category: Reviews

  • ‘Raising Hope’ stays funny – even with a baby

    FOX sitcom, 'Raising Hope'
    FOX sitcom, ‘Raising Hope’

    Fox’s sitcom Raising Hope has become the latest sleeper hit that’s beginning to waken up. On the heels of the start of the second season comes the DVD release of the first.

    Early 20s Jimmy Chance (Lucas Neff) is a single father to baby Hope (twins Baylie and Rylie Cregut). This happens when mother Lucy (Bijou Phillips), a serial killer, is sent to the electric chair. He lives with his father Burt (Garret Dillahunt) and his mother Virginia (Martha Plimpton), who all live in the house of Virginia’s grandmother Maw Maw (Cloris Leachman). Having had Jimmy when they were teenagers, Burt and Virginia didn’t know what they were doing in bringing him up. But they agree to help him.

    The obstacles? Money is a big one. To support their “lower lower lower middle class” household, Burt is a pool cleaner and Virginia is a maid. Jimmy worked with his father but eventually becomes employed as a bagger at the local grocery store to get closer to friend and fellow employee Sabrina (Shannon Woodward). Although she already has a boyfriend and is seemingly oblivious to his feelings, Jimmy isn’t deterred.

    Garret Dillahunt and Martha Plimpton manage the craziness of 'Raising Hope'
    Garret Dillahunt and Martha Plimpton manage the craziness of ‘Raising Hope’

    Anyway, it should probably go without saying that no one in this family, not even straight man Jimmy, is particularly intelligent. To give an example, every time Burt tries to think hard, the only thing he can think of is the word “think.” And Maw Maw’s absent-mindedness induced seemingly by Alzheimer’s doesn’t make things any easier for them. At times she is harder for them to handle than Hope!

    In the episodes this season, the Chances deal with family secrets, sex offender charges, obsessively germ-proofing the house, Virginia’s hoarding habit, and sleep training. Plus special holiday episodes for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

    The strength of the show lies in the actors assembled. Plimpton and Leachman received Emmy nominations for this season and fully deserve them. Dillahunt and Woodward are hilarious too, respectively giving off some vibes of Will Arnett and Ellen Page. And although he’s surrounded by scene-stealers, Neff manages to hold his own.

    And while this all may seem to be far from your grandparents’ shows, the episodes still manage to end with some morals and lessons to be learned. Messages about family, success, and dreams are communicated as we get to see the Chances grow from their experiences. The double meaning of the show’s title comes fully through.

    There are some dumb inconsistencies that bug me though. Jimmy’s exact age is probably the biggest one. We learn that Virginia had him at 15 and is currently 39, which would make him 24. But in a flashback to five years ago, he turns 18, which would make him 22 in earlier episodes and 23 thereafter.

    Guest stars include Jason Lee as an aged rock star, Amy Sedaris as Virginia’s cousin, Brandon T. Jackson as a fellow single father who befriends Jimmy, J.K. Simmons as Burt’s brother, Mary Lynn Rajskub as a polygamist with multiple husbands, and Ethan Suplee and Jaime Pressly as dysfunctional neighbors.

    Extras are the original unaired pilot, an extended version of the season finale, 20 minutes of deleted scenes, commentary on the pilot, a featurette on the babies who play Hope, a making of on the season finale, a gag reel, and a collection of Virginia’s funniest scenes.

    In one episode, Burt says, “TV shows about babies never last more than a year.”Raising Hope has made it through that time and will Hope-fully be on for years to come.

  • ‘Malibu Shark Attack’ is a poor man’s ‘Shark Night 3D’

    Is that supposed to be a shark in 'Malibu Shark Attack'? Apparently
    Is that supposed to be a shark in ‘Malibu Shark Attack’? Apparently

    Last summer’s tail end saw the piranhas, but this one belongs to the sharks. Presumably to capitalize on the buzz from Shark Night 3D, Malibu Shark Attack has finally found its way to DVD. Made for television and airing on the Syfy channel two years ago, ARC has put the film out as part of the Maneater line.

    This movie, which I think can be best described asJaws meets Baywatch meets Hurricane Katrina, succeeds a bit in being an entertaining diversion, but suffers from some key problems, ones that even the most casual viewers will find.

    It’s not a good day at the beach. First an underwater earthquake releases a horde of goblin sharks, a prehistoric species long thought to have been extinct (this is actually a real species but the IUCN believes it is not in danger of extinction). There probably wasn’t much food where they were trapped, but that’s what humans are for.

    However, not long into their chomping spree, the weather takes a dramatic turn. A tsunami hits and the area is mostly evacuated. That is, except for our core cast. Mostly consisting of lifeguards, they take shelter in the lookout shack, which soon becomes half submerged in the risen water level. The sharks, attracted by some blood that spilled from a leg injury, move in on them, bashing away at the structure.

    These parts of the movie, the first two acts, is where it is at its best. It has a fun enough set up (those dumb parasailers pretty much always get what’s coming to them, don’t they?) and then creates a tension-filled situation that sustains interest. But in the third act, where they move beyond the shack, it all falls apart. It’s hard to tell what exactly is meant to be the end goal and what apparently serves as the climax achieves no such effect. Factoring into both is the fact that they inexplicably seem to know exactly how many sharks there are.

    The sharks by the way are CGI, and equally curious is that a few of the shots are constantly recycled throughout the film. The most infamous in particular is the shark swimming toward the camera. I really want to believe this was done on purpose as a gag, but it doesn’t really seem so.

    But of course the humans don’t just cower, they fight too. This is where some pretty cool ways of killing are seen. Ever wanted to see a chainsaw taken to a shark? That’s here. And it’s always great to have lead actress Peta Wilson, who plays the veteran lifeguard Heather, in action. Here she’s more part of a team than the one-woman shows she’s given in the past, but her presence is still very welcome.

    Nothing special of any kind is on the DVD.

    This is in no way one of the best killer fish movies out there, but should at the very least provide a decent fix for those looking forward to Shark Night 3D. Hopefully Wilson and the goblin sharks will have some better projects representing them soon.

  • ‘Puzzle’ puts all the right pieces together

    Maria Onetto and Arturo Goetz put the pieces together in 'Puzzle'
    Maria Onetto and Arturo Goetz put the pieces together in ‘Puzzle’

    In the opening scene of Puzzle, Maria, the perfectly-cast Maria Onetto, a middle-aged housewife, kneads bread, prepares lunch, and decorates a birthday cake. Her own birthday cake.

    During her own birthday party she waits on her family and friends, without a break, while her husband and sons relax, setting the tone for the entire movie.

    The one bright spot in Maria’s dreary desperate housewife existence is her love of jigsaw puzzles, demonstrated aptly by a gleam in Onetto’s eyes as she pieces them together.

    The new world of puzzle competitions (a world that I never knew existed!) is opened up to her by the wealthy Roberto, her puzzle partner she finds via an ad at a local puzzle store. Maria’s relationship with Roberto is complicated. He is alternately another man (like her husband and sons) telling her what to do (the best way to complete puzzles) and loaning her books to read.

    Maria Onetto in 'Puzzle'
    Maria Onetto in ‘Puzzle’

    At first Maria hides her sessions with Roberto from her family as they practice for the national competition, eventually hoping to compete in the worldwide championship. To me it was almost sad to see how pleased Maria is when Roberto praises her puzzle-making skills, when she is so unappreciated by her own family.

    Though Maria does find the courage to reveal her new pastime, and shows her family how important it is to her, they are only vaguely and gradually supportive of her. The family acts patronizing, like oh, isn’t it cute that mom has a new hobby, and begrudge her the time the puzzles take away from them, like when she misses seeing an apartment wither her son in order to practice her puzzle skills. Her husband Juan is only grudgingly supportive of her (though their two sons make an effort to show interest) and at one point asks what the point of putting together puzzles is.

    Maria’s family, though they take her for granted, are loving, with moments of gentle teasing that provide some humorous moments in the film. Laughs can also be found in the vegetarian girlfriend of Maria’s son, who comments that you wouldn’t want to eat a corpse, in reference to eating beef from a cow.

    One of the best parts of the movie, in my opinion, is Onetto’s performance. She portrays Maria in a subtle way that reminded me of Meryl Streep, and conveys both boredom and frustration with her life, the simple pleasure in putting puzzles together, and the strength it takes for Maria to share her puzzle-making with her family, just by the expressions on her face. Onetto’s performance, together with the costuming and setting, work together seamlessly to create a vivid picture of hope in a dreary suburban existence, and of a woman finding the courage to declare independence from the roles society and family expect her to play.

  • ‘Something Borrowed’ should have borrowed better characters

    Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin in 'Something Borrowed'
    Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin in ‘Something Borrowed’

    Something Borrowed, adapted from the Emily Giffen novel, is hardly something new.

    The romantic comedy features Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin as best friends Darcy and Rachel. The “something borrowed” in the title refers to the affair that ignites between Rachel and Darcy’s fiancé Dex, who Rachel met in law school (a fact repeatedly mentioned throughout the movie).

    The movie has its cute moments, including a subplot involving a character pretending to be gay to avoid the advances of Darcy and Rachel’s man-hungry friend Claire, but neither Darcy as played by Hudson or Rachel as portrayed by Goodwin have any redeeming value.

    Darcy is a vapid, shallow party girl who is not the brightest bulb in the box. Rachel, the somewhat more likeable of the pair, wallows in inaction during most of the movie, much like a female Hamlet with longing stares. It’s hard to imagine how they became friends in the first place. Both have a rather dysfunctional relationship with each other: Darcy overshadows and overpowers Rachel and calls all the shots, while Rachel just lets her.

    While Hudson and Goodwin are little more than caricatures, Colin Egglesfield turns in a rather wooden performance as Dex. He and Goodwin just didn’t have as much chemistry as I would have expected from an illicit affair, making one wonder how he would inspire such passion in the two best friends.

    The affair itself somehow seems too easily accomplished: no lipstick on the collar or telltale receipts. And while Darcy hovers cluelessly around the possibility that Dex is cheating on her, she never quite sees the writing on the wall until the end. Rachel, for her part, in my opinion, doesn’t have many qualms about how her affair with Dex might affect her friendship with Darcy.

    Something Borrowed is a light romantic romp, with corny dialogue (in one moment Kate Hudson proclaims, “Call me, Mr. Magoo”), spiced with snarky one-liners (“The Hamptons are a zombie movie created by Ralph Lauren.”) throughout the movie, providing giggles for the girls in the audience. There are also some sweet encounters including the original meeting of Dex and Rachel in a law school classroom, which goes some way to redeeming the film.

    As in most rom-coms, there is a happy ending, though perhaps dubious in this case, as my friend who saw the movie with me noted that it “wasn’t true to real life.” Though most rom-coms aren’t, in this case you almost wish Rachel had set her sights on one of the other many men in her life besides Dex who declare their love for her throughout the movie.

  • ‘Thor’ hammers out a darn good movie

    Chris Hemsworth in ‘Thor’

    The movie that could easily have sank Marvel’s efforts to build their comic book characters into legitimate film franchises may very well turn out to be one of their best.

    Thor had the odds stacked against it from the beginning.

    Most comic books-turned-movies these days are with a real-world tone, such as with Iron Man and Nolan’s Batman films. A tale about a hammer-wielding Norse god does not immediately fit so easily into this more down-to-Earth approach. One could easily see Thor contrast drastically with Stark’s mix of science and technology and Batman’s gritty Gotham City.

    However, Thor and Iron Man — among others — are meant to exist in one Marvel film universe which will eventually collide in next year’s Avengers.

    Thankfully, Marvel has successfully managed to massage Thor in a fashion where it seamlessly weaves in with Iron Man (and presumably Captain America and even The Hulk).

    Thor is quite smartly told, with fun characters and an intriguing story that serves to introduce Thor to mainstream America, without making him seem silly (as anyone who may only know him through Marvel’s kiddie show, Super Hero Squad).

    Thor introduces the god of thunder (played by Chris Hemsworth) as an arogant, blood-thirsty brat who grows up to become an arogant, blood-thirsty man. That arogance gets him cast out of Asgard and sent powerless to Earth. There he meets a group of scientists which includes Jane Foster (Natalie Portman), with whom he develops some affection for. But things get dicey when treatury and deceit back at Asgard mean Thor has to learn to become a better man if he hopes to save the day.

    Director Kenneth Branagh, known mostly for his Shakespeare productions than summer block busters, assembles a thoroughly entertaining adventure. In fact, it’s his experience with The Bard that likely helped shape Thor into such a great film.

    Natalie Portman and Chris Hemsworth in ‘Thor’

    There are Shakespearean elements to be found virtually everywhere: Tragic romances, royal backstabbing and mystical creatures populate Thor just as they did so many of the playwright’s famous works.

    Hemsworth does well to keep Thor both bombastic, yet charming. Portman helps make her astrophysicist character more than just a woman in distress, and Kat Dennings keeps Darcy Lewis (the film’s defacto comic-relief) likable.

    Stellan Skarsgård proves to be one of Thor’s best gems, providing a level to the film which will undoubtedly be used as bread crumbs leading towards Avengers. And Tom Hiddleston is especially oily as Thor’s coniving brother, Loki.

    Marvel works hard to make Thor’s stand-alone adventure service the greater storyline that will be Avengers, but unlike Iron Man 2, Thor doesn’t feel bloated or distracted. It kick-starts the character, setting him up for whatever sequel films Marvel may choose to produce, while getting its pieces in place for whatever is has in store for the ensemble-dominated Avengers.

    If I was going to say anything negative about Thor, then it would have to be the uninspired 3D. While still fun to watch, if you don’t feel like plucking down the extra few bucks, then keep them in your wallet and go see the 2D version. You’re not going to get anything more out of the experience by seeing it with the added dimension.

    Somehow, I’m going to bet that this will be true for most of the big budget flicks coming out this summer.

  • ‘Every Little Step’ documentary has two left feet

    ‘Every Little Step’ documentary has two left feet

    Chorus Line dreams come true in 'Every Little Step'
    Chorus Line dreams come true in ‘Every Little Step’

    I really wanted Every Little Step, a documentary about the creation of the musical, A Chorus Line, and its recent Broadway revival, to be a “singular sensation.”

    Unfortunately, while it was a frothy concoction of a movie that spoke to my inner high school drama geek, it just never quite earned a standing ovation.

    The movie follows the genesis of the original musical, and follows the actors/actresses auditioning for the recent Broadway revival. Interesting factoids are kicked about (the show was based on the real-life recorded conversations of Broadway dancers, and actress Marsha Mason changed the musical’s plotline by suggesting that Cassie, an aging dancer, get a part in the show that the characters are auditioning for), but I think the documentary could have easily been split into two different films or at least two different parts. I would have enjoyed seeing more about the musical’s conception and the real people whose stories inspired the show. I also would have liked to learn more about the man behind the musical, Michael Bennett, whose bio is only hinted at in the movie. There was a special feature on his life on the DVD, but I think it would have been better-suited as part of the documentary itself.

    Dancers chase their dreams in 'Every Little Step'
    Dancers chase their dreams in ‘Every Little Step’

    I also never really felt an emotional connection with any of the actors and actresses auditioning for the 2006 Broadway revival. They flitted on and off the screen as little more than talking heads. The quirky people who try out for American Idol are more entertaining.

    One does get a sense of their hopefulness (one woman’s unemployment had run out), and you can see how A Chorus Line is still relevant to young actors and actresses today. A whole movie about the actors auditioning for the show and their personal dramas would have been enjoyable. I was amazed at how far and wide they traveled just to audition for the musical.

    However, the parts that featured the actors and actresses felt a little like teasers, because I didn’t get to see enough of the auditions to have an opinion on who should be cast in what role. Once again the special features were used to include longer audition segments, pieces that would have been better served in the documentary itself. I also wanted to know what happened after the Chorus Line revival debuted, and what the actors and actresses were doing in the present-day. The whole chronology of the auditions was a little jarring, skipping four months here and eight months there. The show went from being cast to the opening night in a second.

    I did like how the nights of storytelling that provided the backbone of the play were contrasted with modern-day casting of the show and how cleverly A Chorus Line’s songs were used in the documentary’s soundtrack.

    A sequel to Every Little Step? No, but there are two sides to the story, and I would have liked to have seen the creation of the musical and the revival each take center stage in their own films.

  • ‘The Invention of Lying’ makes honesty quite appealing

    ‘The Invention of Lying’ makes honesty quite appealing

    Jennifer Garner and Ricky Gervais in The Invention of Lying

    Ricky Gervais writes, directs and stars in The Invention of Lying, a new film that also stars Jennifer Garner, Louis C.K., Jonah Hill and Rob Lowe.

    But just to be clear, Matthew Robinson co-wrote and co-directed this interesting look at a society where everyone is completely honest until suddenly one lone man somehow learns to dissemble.

    Gervais portrays “Mark Bellison”, a writer for a film studio.

    How refreshing and yet insulting would it be to live in a kind of utopia where a blind date tells you that she is clearly not attracted to you and that you won’t be sleeping with her on that or any night? Or when a waiter tells you that your food looks awful and they wouldn’t eat it and they suggest an alternative? As for the film studio in question, because there is no fiction or dishonesty in this society it makes films about the history of the world, narrated by people with resonant voices.

    Poor Mark is stuck with a decade that contains no history of real interest and as a result his position is in jeopardy.

    His blind date with “Anna” (Jennifer Garner) didn’t go well even though she is gorgeous and he is clearly infatuated with her. She is more concerned about genetics and ensuring that her future children are as genetically gifted as she is.

    Fionnula Flanagan and Ricky Gervais in The Invention of Lying

    When Mark is finally let go, he commiserates with his friend “Greg” (Louis C.K.) and his neighbor “Frank” (Jonah Hill) about how awful their lives are. Then, faced with the reality of being evicted, he makes a breakthrough. He discovers his facility for dishonesty and the results of this are beyond his wildest dreams.

    Then he is confronted with the reality of his mother’s impending death, and he only wants to alleviate her fears and comfort her in her final moments, so he spins a tale about what comes after death that has nothing to do with either reality or what people in this utopian society have previously been told to believe.

    If his mother had been the only person to hear Mark’s tale nothing more might have happened, but when word leaks out that there is a man who knows what happens after you die, people all over the world begin to clamor to know what this man knows.

    I am deliberately being vague and leaving what I tell you about this tale at this point because I refuse to spoil the rest of this terrific movie before someone reading this has that experience spoiled for them.

    Gervais and company have created a film that makes you think about some very interesting situations. Would you prefer honesty over the “white lies” that people in our current society tell to save themselves from the pain of confrontation? Would it be easier if you knew what those around you actually thought instead of having to try to guess and wonder just how much you truly know about how you are perceived? Is there more than just pure physical attraction that brings two lovers together and keeps them that way for extended periods?

    If you want see a thought-provoking film, this is the one currently out there to see.

  • ‘Surrogates’ travels through familiar territory

    ‘Surrogates’ travels through familiar territory

    Radha Mitchell and Bruce Willis in Surrogates

    If you find yourself walking out of the theater auditorium after having seen Surrogates, the latest film from director Jonathan Mostow (U-571 and Breakdown), and feel like this is ‘stuff’ you have seen before, don’t worry.

    It is.

    Mostow also directed Terminator 3 – Rise of the Machines, and Surrogates is another moralistic message about how the more humans rely on machines, the less human we become. In Surrogates (taken from the graphic novel by Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele, adapted by Michael Ferris and John D. Brancato), Bruce Willis is an FBI agent, Radha Mitchell plays his partner, and Rosamund Pike portrays his wife. The film opens with a hefty explanation of the creation and advancement of the robotic surrogates who have changed society into a near utopia.

    People never leave their homes, preferring to lie down and live their lives through their surrogate selves. It seems attractive on the surface. Surrogates don’t get ill, don’t gain weight, don’t lose their hair and can look like magazine models (something clearly illustrated when the audience is shown the “operator” of a gorgeous female surrogate and that operator turns out to have a quite unexpected appearance).

    In this new society, crime barely exists and the corporation that builds the surrogates is one of the world’s largest corporations.

    Not everyone is a fan of the surrogates. These humans live on reservations throughout the country, and are led by The Prophet, portrayed by Ving Rhames.

    This get complicated, however, when two surrogates are killed—along with their operators. This has never happened before, and leads Willis on a race to obtain a weapon that could destroy everything—and everyone.

    Ving Rhames in Surrogates

    But when Willis loses his surrogate, he must venture out into the world for the first time in years, and one where he’s a mere human against powerful machines.

    If ever there was an actor born to play “the hero alone”, it is Willis. The real Willis, who is balding, fit although a bit stocky and unkempt, unlike his almost perfect surrogate appearance. Mitchell is effective as his partner, as is Pike as his wife. In particular, the scenes where Willis is trying to re-connect with his real-life wife as opposed to her surrogate resonate with the audience.

    Solid actors, a director with a proven track record and yet Surrogates doesn’t quite make the mark it could and should have.

    Predictable plot devices and a weak story line burden this film, as does the similarity of Cromwell’s character to Dr. Alfred Lanning, his role in I, Robot. In the earlier film, he was the creator of the robots and the only one to see the problem with the path of their evolution. Here he creates the surrogates and may be the only one who understands what will come of living through devices rather than living life directly.

    The effects are not bad and there are some effective scenes, but if you have a choice, send your surrogate to see Surrogates and tune out during the 89 minutes they will be watching for you.

    In the end, you won’t have missed much.

  • ‘Frost/Nixon’ is simply spectacular

    ‘Frost/Nixon’ is simply spectacular

    Frank Langella as Richard Nixon in ‘Frost/Nixon’

    In the 219 years since George Washington became the first President of the United States, only one President has ever resigned. Richard Milhous Nixon, the nation’s 37th President, stepped down in the wake of the Watergate scandal on August 9, 1974. The history of what happened during the Watergate break-in and its aftermath has been well-documented in prior films such as All the President’s Men, Nixon and the television miniseries Blind Ambition.

    Not quite three years hence, British talk-show host David Frost (Michael Sheen) came up with the idea of interviewing the former president on television.  It took a large sum of money but eventually Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) agreed to the interviews.  Those interviews and the process that led up to them are the body and soul of the brilliant Frost/Nixon from director Ron Howard. Based on a stage play written by Peter Morgan, who also penned the screenplay, Frost/Nixon also stars Kevin Bacon as Jack Brennan, Nixon’s post presidency Chief of Staff, Sam Rockwell as James Reston Jr. and Oliver Platt as Bob Zelnick.

    This terrific cast, given just the right directorial tone from Howard, step up and perform brilliantly in this account of the events that led up to the taped interviews and the interviews themselves. Langella and Sheen do fine jobs of portraying the real-life characters as they were back then, doing credible jobs with accent and gesture. Langella’s work here rivals his incredible performance as the real-life William S. Paley in 2005’s Good Night and Good Luck. Kevin Bacon also delivers his typical strong performance as the former Marine and still hard-nosed Chief of Staff for the former Chief Executive.

    Little time is spent on the events prior to Nixon’s resignation as it is accurately assumed that the viewing public knows this history well enough. Instead the focus is on the aftermath and how events cascaded in a way that led Frost to come up with the remarkable idea of interviewing Nixon himself because of the gigantic audience it would draw. It quite accurately portrays Frost as being in somewhat of a career low and shows Nixon and his advisors considering him to be nowhere near the intellectual equal of the former President. They all thought Nixon would have Frost for a snack once the deal was struck. The avarice of the former President is evident by how quickly he jumps at the deal, which ultimately turns out to be for $600,000 of Frost’s own money.

    Frank Langella and Kevin Bacon in ‘Frost/Nixon’

    Frost did hire James Reston Jr. and Bob Zelnick to do research for the interviews with Nixon and much of the middle of the movie takes place showing the three of them, along with producer John Birt (Matthew Macfadyen), holed up in a hotel.  They insisted on being fully prepped for the sessions with the man known to most of the public as “Tricky Dick.” The pressure of putting together the interview questions while trying to sell the series of interviews, all the while Frost’s own money being at risk, is almost palpable in the room as the men work frantically to accomplish their goals.

    The best moments are in the interviews themselves, especially the final interview, where Nixon actually gave his cathartic confession, the closest he ever came to accepting blame for the fiasco that brought down his administration. But there are very few wasted moments at all in the movie, Howard finding the right touch to keep the audience focused on the action.

    Oscar, take notice.

  • ‘Cadillac Records’ is worth a spin

    Adrien Brody as Leonard Chess and Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters in ‘Cadillac Records’

    “Leonard Chess didn’t know nothing about no blues” – Muddy Waters

    Cue the cheesy Sherwood Schwartz music. It’s the story of a man named Lenny, who was busy with an idea of his own. He had this wild, crazy notion that he, a White, Polish immigrant living in Chicago could start a record label (actually, he bought an existing label) on the South Side of town, go out and find Black artists and record them making what were referred to in that era as “race records” and make money while doing it.

    Leonard Chess was a pioneer in that way, along with his brother who we see very little of in Cadillac Records. Portrayed by Oscar-winner Adrien Brody, Chess is a tough record producer who does whatever it takes to get the recording in the can and on the air, including paying off disc jockeys. The whole payola system was in full effect in the heyday of Chess Records and they used it to get airtime for their artists. The reason the movie was titled Cadillac Records by its writer/director Darnell Martin was Lenny Chess’s reputation for buying his star recording acts a new Caddy whenever they had a big hit record. The problem, which comes up in the film’s later stage is that Lenny’s largess was done with what should have been the artist’s share of the royalties from those hits.

    The historic importance of Chess Records and its founder in terms of the creation of what we know today as “rock and roll” cannot be overstated. Among the fine cast that Martin has put together for her film is Jeffrey Wright, whose portrayal of the legendary Muddy Waters is simply brilliant. He continues to impress with his ability to portray a wide variety of characters. Also giving excellent performances in Cadillac Records are Eammon Walker as the big man, “Howling Wolf”, Columbus Short as the charismatic but troubled Little Walter and Gabrielle Union as Geneva Wade, the woman that Muddy Waters always came home to, no matter where he’d been or what he might have done.

    Gabrielle Union as Geneva Wade in ‘Cadillac Records

    One of the things that detracts from the success of Cadillac Records and keeps it from a “four popcorn” rating is that director Martin insisted on her stars singing their own music in the film. This was a major mistake, probably brought on by the successful singing of Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line and Jamie Foxx in Ray. Those films were examples of where current actors singing the music of the musicians they are portraying worked well. This is an example of where it doesn’t. Beyonce may be a talented woman, with a fine musical career but her vocalizations don’t hold a candle to the original works of Etta James. Likewise with Jeffrey Wright. He is a great actor, but his musical efforts are a pale shadow of what the real Muddy Waters produced.

    Other than the choice to have the actors do their own singing, and the fact that Mos Def’s duckwalk just doesn’t quite get the job done in comparison to that of the real Chuck Berry, Cadillac Records tells the story quite well. Particularly in the third act, where the financial chicanery of Lenny Chess finally start to come to light and you’ll find yourself snapping your fingers to the beat as the music plays on.