Review of Miles Ahead (2016) by John S — 31 Dec 2016

There's a funny bit where Miles Davis shows obvious disdain for "Kind of Blue", considered universally as a (if not thee) jazz standard, preferring the overlooked "Sketches of Spain". "Miles Ahead" is a musician's movie through and through, exploring the process of making great art, often to excruciating detail, and the suffering of other parts of life at the cost of creating said art.

The bizarro, mad genius world through the rainbow coloured glasses of Miles himself is one crazy ride. Writer, director, star, Don Cheadle becomes Miles, plain and simple. We get a hallucinatory, fictional snippet of Miles' in the wilderness, cocaine fuelled, late seventies drought, cut jaggedly with his meteoric early days (which plays like a standard biopic).

Miles' complicated, thrilling and troubled relationship with dancer Frances Taylor is the core of both periods (before and after the loving), offering up his chief dilemma in life: choosing art over love, since he is not capable of balancing both.

The film plays like a combination of Miles' early and latter records, one part smooth, straight ahead narrative, the other a surreal, hazy, improvisational trip, revolving around a mysterious, much in demand tape. This will no doubt elicit devout fanaticism or utter disdain from the audience. Or both. Much like Davis' music. So, a total success.

- hipCRANK.