Darnell Martin made an impressive feature directing debut in 1994 with the smart, energetic comedy I Like It Like That--the title wasn't her idea, thanks--and then seemed to vanish from the scene. So it's great news that she's back, and at the helm of one of the few December releases that gives promise of being more about showing the audience a good time than whoring after Mammon or Oscar: Cadillac Records, the story of how Chess Records, led by Leonard Chess (played in the movie by Adrien Brody, who's way overdue for a big role where he doesn't spend the movie getting the shit kicked out of him or losing the girl to a 25-foot gorilla), brought blues and rock and roll to the Clearasilled masses of young, white America. Although Martin wrote the script, she didn't initiate the project: it fell into her lap when someone as Sony BMG, in the throes of a bout of corporate good sense, pitched her to come on board. It turns out that Martin, who grew up in the Bronx, wasn't exactly what she calls a "blues maniac." She immersed herself in the period, reading books and talking to those who were there, until, Frank Di Giacomo writes, "She came to see the film as an ensemble story that depicted the intersecting lives of some of Chess’s biggest stars." Martin told Di Giacomo that “I started to see these guys with each other,” and "It’s like GoodFellas. It’s like a Western. The blues is about machismo.” Besides Brody, the cast includes such tough hombres as Jeffrey Wright, who plays Muddy Waters, and Mos' Def, who got to update his Halloween wardrobe when he scored the role of Chuck Berry.
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