Indie Film Journal

CADILLAC RECORDS – director: Darnell Martin; starring: Adrian Brody, Jeffery Wright, Beyonce

There’s an air of ambition floating around the first twenty minutes of Cadillac Records promising to eschew the familiar terrain of the music bio-pics by attempting to layer several stories at once. Cadillac Records tells the story of “Chess” records, the legendary Chicago record label and studio where the likes of Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry, Etta James and Muddy Waters created some of their most classic hits. Adrian Brody plays Leonard Chess an immigrant’s son who has ambitions of success that would erase the years of struggle passed on by his failure of a father. Jeffery Wright plays blues legend Muddy Waters, a sharecropper who uses his musical talents to escape his doomed life in Mississippi. The two meet up and the like-minded duo from different side of the tracks form a partnership that endures success, death, and addiction. (more…)