Review of Cadillac Records (2008) by Paul Z — 11 Jun 2009

A bone of contention could be picked that modern rock 'n' roll was catapulted not at Sun Records in Memphis, but at Chess Records and its previous South Side locations in view of the early 1950s. The Rolling Stones even recorded a song named after the address. The great Chess inventory consisted of Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James, Willie Dixon, Chuck Berry and Little Walter. They initially made Chicago the home of the blues, and then rhythm and blues, which, like Muddy asserted, had a baby, and they named it rock 'n' roll.

Darnell Martin's less than original but nonetheless musically captivating biopic is a chronicle of the Chess story that relies to a much greater extent on music than history, which is maybe as it should be. It's an entertaining account of the progress of a black musical technique, and the confused rationale of the white men who had a proclivity for it. The Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, walked into districts that were dicey for white men after midnight, concealing guns, found or were found by the most gifted musicians of the imminent new wave, and recorded them in a studio so compact it combusted the sound out into the world.

This celebratory mini-drama avoids the presence of Phil Chess and concentrates on the mystifying, chain-smoking Leonard, played with a tonal balance by Adrien Brody. Beginning with a first interface with Muddy Waters, who virtually came to be his creative partner, he visited "race music" radio stations in the South with his artists and payola, both discovered and built an appeal, and gave his musicians shiny new Cadillacs but never a good look at their royalties. Played by Jeffrey Wright, an actor who should've by now become a major star, Muddy was likely given just a divvy of the money he earned, but the more barbaric Howlin' Wolf, apparently less cultured, played by the smackingly intense character actor Eamonn Walker, held onto his money, made his own deals and shockingly even paid health benefits for his band.

Considering the amount of characters and the time encompassed, Martin performs a capable chore of delineating the backgrounds of some of her subjects and doesn't go out of her way to judge Leonard's business approach. Did the singers know their Cadillacs were procured with their own earnings? There is an affecting scene where Leonard clears the decks for the first meeting between Etta James and her white father, Minnesota Fats. And an adjoining showcase of the disconcerted yet lasting marriage of Muddy Waters and his wife.

The casting overall is the foremost element. Columbus Short broaches the mounting internal banes of Little Walter, and Cedric the Entertainer plays the singer-songwriter Willie Dixon as an architect and unifier. It's hard for anyone to play such inimitable and already famous personalities, but it's also hard to reproduce something like the personality of Mos Def, who makes Chuck Berry an incredibly gleeful and enjoyable presence.