In recent years, there has been a surplus of musical biopics, from the great (Love & Mercy) to the awful (Ray) and all points in between. Miles Ahead, stylistically at least, tries to break new ground, but I found it failing quite often in the same ways many other efforts have,
Set mostly in 1981, a time when jazz legend Miles Davis (Don Cheadle) was in the midst of a personal and professional crisis. Suffering from a degenerative hip disorder, addicted to cocaine and virtually a recluse, he hadn’t released any music for about five years. His record company have advanced him some cash and are looking for the tapes he has recorded, but Davis does not want to release them.
Into his life walks a music journalist, Dave Brill (Ewen McGregor) who is looking for a story. Dave becomes involved in Davis’ attempts to retrieve his tapes and the chaotic events that unfold; although almost entirety fictionalised they have a great energy. Sprawling across the streets of New York those are the best moments of the film, especially when slimy agent Harper Hamilton appears. Michael Stuhlbarg steals the movie in that role.
Interspersed with that story are flashbacks to Davis’ heyday in the 1950s and 60s and his time with his great love, Frances Taylor (Emayatzy Corinealdi). Although much more rooted in fact, those scenes are much less effective. Sessions with his band, romancing and fighting with Frances, encounters with racist cops, it all feels by-the-numbers and stuff we have seen many times before in films about troubled musicians.
So, large parts of the film feel very draggy despite Cheadle’s best efforts, and despite some interesting attempts to mix two different time periods in the same frame. This is a real passion project for him, and he directs, co-wrote and even contributed to the score. His performance is fine, but the film can’t really be described as a success.
Rating: 5 out of 10