okay so the skinny jeans didn't work out for me so well …

There are some fundamental problems with the movie Cadillac Records, which has been sold to audiences as a biopic about Etta James only because of the appearance of Beyonce Knowles of which this movie most definitely is not a biopic about Etta James or any of the other characters in this film.  First off, not enough attention was paid to Etta James; Beyonce begins to deliver an interesting performance but never really gets to fully develop her character.  We get a feel for her heroin addiction, which you can almost sense in the recording booth, but we aren’t totally convinced that she was truly in love with the owner of the recording label.  Secondly, it would appear as though the real story is that Etta James was Amy Winehouse decades before Amy Winehouse was who she is; she has the swagger, the addiction, and the personality that precludes any shtick that Amy brought to the game years later.

So much of the film was about Muddy Waters, almost even more so than it was the record label itself that this film feels uneven.  There was a great love story that could have developed between Leonard Chess and Etta James, or even an interesting story in how his obsession over Etta James affected his relationship with his wife or even a story about how Muddy Waters child affected his relationship with his girl or even more of a background on Chuck Berry’s contribution to Chess Records.  Instead we are left to figure out how Leonard Chess’ amazing ability to find artists that are totally irrespective to the genre of music of which his last great artist excelled at worked together and kept from getting the best of each other. 

When Howlin’ Wolf offered a rough, gritty, distinctive brand of blues things began to get interesting, at least from an artistic standpoint.  But his work was perhaps ahead of it’s time and he wasn’t ready for mainstream acceptance.  In the movie it was more interesting that he did not want to be indebted to Chess, who had a thing for paying artists in Cadillacs, instead of cash.  This got underneath the skin of Muddy Waters, but instead of using that situation for a more intense dramatic narrative the only real confrontation we get to see if between Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf when Little Waters dies.

The only real strong performances we get to see in this film are from those of whom a more engaging plot could have been built around; Adrian Brody, Jefferey Wright and Columbus Short.  Gabrielle Union was in the film but it isn’t entirely clear why as her presence is seemingly trivial and insignificant in this film.  The same can almost be said for Mos Def, who typically gets to shine but does the best with the little bit of time that he has.  To be totally honest it is unclear who the protagonists in this film even are, or maybe perhaps everyone is, which is a big part of the problem. 

This was like Mos Def’s twenty-third film according to Wikipedia, his 37th production to date according to IMDB.  His contribution as an actor amongst rappers is second to none only to Ice Cube, and this is perhaps only because Ice Cube has scored better movies that are more mainstream and not as artistic and that Cube does everything, writing, producing, directing, even composing as opposed to just acting.  But if you are going to use him (Def) give him the screen time.  In general, Cadillac Records plays upon the same archetypes that have defined movies about the African-American experience in the recording industry going all the way back to Sparkle.  It doesn’t offer anything that different from Dreamgirls of The Five Heartbeats and is an endless string of missed opportunities.  We can only hope that Etta James gets the true biopic that she deserves, and that the talent in this movie can shine elsewhere in the future …