Miles Ahead (film)

Miles Ahead
File:Miles Ahead (film).png Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Don Cheadle
Produced by	Darryl Porter Vince Wilburn Daniel Wagner Robert Ogden Barnum Don Cheadle Pamela Hirsch Lenore Zerman
Screenplay by	Steven Baigelman Don Cheadle
Story by	Steven Baigleman Don Cheadle Stephen J. Rivele Christopher Wilkinson
Starring	Don Cheadle Ewan McGregor Emayatzy Corinealdi LaKeith Lee Stanfield Michael Stuhlbarg
Music by	Robert Glasper
Cinematography	Roberto Schaefer
Edited by	John Axelrad Kayla M. Emter
Production company	Bifrost Pictures Miles Davis Properties, LLC IM Global Films Sobini Films Yellowsaw Productions Limited Crescendo Productions
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics
Release dates	October 11, 2015 (2015-10-11) (NYFF) April 1, 2016 (2016-04-01)
Running time	100 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$344,582
Box office	$2.6 million

Miles Ahead is a 2015 American biographical film directed by Don Cheadle, which Cheadle co-wrote with Steven Baigelman, Stephen J. Rivele, and Christopher Wilkinson, based on the life of jazz musician Miles Davis. The film stars Cheadle, Emayatzy Corinealdi, and Ewan McGregor, and closed the New York Film Festival on October 11, 2015. The film takes its title from Davis' 1957 album.

Cast

• Don Cheadle as Miles Davis
• Emayatzy Corinealdi as Frances Taylor
• Ewan McGregor as Dave Brill
• Michael Stuhlbarg as Harper Hamilton
• Keith Stanfield as Junior
• Austin Lyon as Justin
• Jeffrey Grover as Gil Evans
• Joshua Jessen as Bill Evans
• Theron Brown as Herbie Hancock
• JT Thigpen as Paul Chambers
• David Kettlehake as Cab Driver
• Mark Angel II as Driver and Background Pedestrian
• Derek Snow as Harold Lovett, Miles' lawyer
• Jon "Swing" McHale as himself
• Morgan Wolk as Erica
• Mark Turkeltaub as Cop #1

Production

The idea for Cheadle to star in Miles Davis biopic began when Cheadle was auditioning for Ali, and was told by writer Chris Wilkenson suggested it, noting that he knew the Davis family. Cheadle was interested although he didn't seriously consider it until 2006. That year, when Miles Davis was being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Davis' nephew stated that Cheadle was the only person who could play Miles and that a film was coming with him starring. At the time there were no actual plans for the movie and the comments came to Cheadle as a surprise.

Intrigued by the comments however, Cheadle met with the Davis family who pitched him a variety of concepts, none of which interested him. Cheadle finally brought up the concept of portraying Davis as a "gangster" based on his life in 1945 and the 1970s. The family approved this concept and Cheadle soon realized that he was the only one with the vision to write and direct the film this way.

Cheadle has said the casting of Ewan McGregor, who plays a Rolling Stone journalist in the film, was partly because the actor had a high box office appeal in territories outside North America: "I could have cast a huge French actor, or an Asian actor who’s big in Japan, China, and try to make it work for that. Because it’s all about selling foreign. No needle moved until we cast Ewan McGregor". The financing of the film required multiple sources including crowdfunding. Cheadle said: "We crowdfunded via Indiegogo, deferred payment, I put money in myself. Kevin Hart, Pras, my producer’s cousin, my other producer’s friend put money in. It was just like that kind of a situation".

Filming began on July 7, 2014 in Cincinnati, Ohio and the first film's first promotional photo was released. Filming wrapped on August 16, 2014.

Release and reception

In August 2015, Sony Pictures Classics acquired distribution rights to Miles Ahead. The film had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 10, 2015.

Miles Ahead received generally positive reviews from critics. Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating in the 0–100 range based on reviews from top mainstream publications, calculated an average score of 64, based on 21 reviews. Based on 83 reviews collected by Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a 72% approval rating from reviewers, with an average score of 6.4/10. The site's consensus reads, "Miles Ahead is worth watching for Don Cheadle's strong work on both sides of the camera, even if this unconventional biopic doesn't quite capture its subject's timeless appeal".

In The New York Times, Manohla Dargis wrote that while Davis purists may complain about the imagined sequences in the film, but "they'll also miss the pleasure and point of this playfully impressionistic movie." She was particularly impressed by Cheadle's ability to shift between "times, moods and modes effortlessly". Chicago Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper gave Miles Ahead three out of four stars and found of it silly but often engrossing, crediting Cheadle for attempting to make a unique music biopic while giving "a brilliant performance worthy of an Oscar nomination". In a less enthusiastic review, Kenneth Turan from the Los Angeles Times said the "fully realized" characters played by Cheadle and Corinealdi were surrounded by a plot he deemed clichéd, unsophisticated, and forgettable. Rex Reed was more critical in a one-star review for The New York Observer, writing that it was overwhelmingly plagued by "hyberole and innuendo" while taking issue with Cheadle's depiction of Davis and his life: "According to the jazz musicians I know, he was unpredictable and borderline crazy, but nothing like the moody, unhinged and dangerous stray bullet depicted here."

External links

• Miles Ahead at IMDb
• Miles Beyond the Biopic: Don Cheadle Riffs on a Jazz Legend