Chess Records gets the Hollywood treatment, for better or for worse.
Continuing the trend of 1950s and 60s music biogrpahies, this weekend’s Cadillac Records has the distinction of covering a time and place in music history that hasn’t gotten as much attention as it deserves. Though most modern music fans perhaps don’t realize it, Chicago and its Chess Records label made indelible contributions to the development of rock, pop and soul music that continues to the present day. The jury’s out whether this new film will prove worthy of its subject material, and God knows it’s got “VH1 Classics weekend movie” written all over it, but there’s enough talent in the cast to make it worth ticket-buying consideration.
Chess Records was the Chicago-based recording company that, in the 1950s, produced some of the best blues, soul, and R&B of its time, numbering such luminaries as Etta James, Muddy Waters, and Chuck Berry among its eclectic stable of artists. Founded in 1950 by Leonard and Phil Chess, the children of Polish immigrants, the label released such classics as James’ “At Last,” Waters’ “I’m A Man,” and dozens of hits by Howlin’ Wolf, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley, and many others. Their work inspired a generation of rock musicians – particularly in Britain, as the film (and its trailer below) succinctly point out.
Hoochie coochie man: Wright as Waters
Written and directed by frequent television director Darnell Martin, teh film features Adrian Brody as Leonard Chess, Beyonce Knowles as James, Jeffrey Wright as Waters, and Mos Def as Chuck Berry. That’s a good ensemble cast for a work whose early reviews have been less than promising. Given such rich story material, it wil be a shame if it’s in fact as routine as those reviews have claimed. And there are causes for hesitation even among the cast. The Pianist notwithstanding, we’re not convinced Brody has ever really lived up to the potential he showed in early work in The Thin Red Line and Summer of Sam, and we’re unsure Knowles can actually, you know, act. We’re also less excited about having the film’s stars (yes, especially Bee-Yonce) perform their own cover versions of their characters’ hits. Such a conceit has the air of hubris at best, and of cynical soundtrack marketing possibilities at worst.
In the film’s defense, Wright is biologically incapable of giving a bad performance, and Def is almost always fun to watch for his inspired screen energy. There’s also reportedly another, far more indie Chess Records film, entitled Who Do You Love, that might do the subject matter justice if Cadillac Records does indeed disappoint. Still and all, we’ll probably check it out anyway if only to encourage the market for films based on 60s record labels. We want to see the story of Memphis’ own STAX Records (Dijimon Hounsou as Isaac Hayes, anybody?) put up on the screen in the worst kind of way.
- Michael Kabel
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