“Miles Ahead” is Poignant, Timely, and Oscar Bound

I would bet anyone that this film gets nominated for a few Oscars in December. Don Cheadle is almost certainly a Best Actor contender for his portrayal of Miles Davis. Sadly, part of my reaction is due to the political reaction during awards season over the paucity of nominations and roles for African American actors. In other words, the film and the acting are deserving of praise, but because this film (without presuming to) responds to the controversy, it draws even more energy than it might have on its own merits.

[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Cheadle plays a man whose muse is at once his savior and slaver: in one frame his eyes flash fear and pain and the grip of anguish, yet one frame and beat later he looks to the trumpet and the eyes signal peace and relief.[/pullquote]

In taking on the role of Miles Davis during a shadowy session of his life, Cheadle nearly achieves the impossible. To quote a movie line from the 1998 film Playing By Heart,

“Talking about music is like dancing to architecture.”

To try to describe the music of a great artist is to diminish it.  To reach out to cradle one of the vessels of High Art is to risk fracturing it. Cheadle plays a man whose muse is at once his savior and slaver: in one frame his eyes flash fear and pain and the grip of anguish, yet one frame and beat later he looks to the trumpet and the eyes signal peace and relief.

Miles Davis didn’t like the word “Jazz” to describe his music: he preferred to call it “social music.” And so the film itself is a little like a Davis composition. Call it what you will, the scenes–like notes–trace a central theme or melody, yet before you dare anticipate the next sound, it goes where it feels right to go. It opens up a new line and mood, steps back onto a different tempo, lays down an idea: it takes you “there.” By the time the film is over you are there. The song is over (though the music is still playing) and you aren’t sure what to call it or how it might have changed you., but you respect it as something pure.

Baby, you wanna see this movie.

WH