But enough about the movie. Let's talk about me.

Great review for the movie, and while I have not seen it yet, I am disappointed that it sounds so shallow for a great artist such as Miles.

This is what I worried about when I saw the gunplay bits in the trailer. (But as an aside, Whiplash was pretty much bullshit on most counts, too.)

Most biopics, especially ones about musicians, suck. They can't help but reduce a fantastic life into a 120 minute greatest hits of small moments, which rarely ever reflect the life (and lessons) actually lived. Unfortunately, they're also at the front of the line for prestige pics and Oscar bait... So they keep getting made. Oh well, fuck it.

Biopics fail because the person being profiled, despite having been influential or talented or a great innovator, often was dull or uninteresting in his or her personal life. So screenwriters are forced to "tart up" a real life to make it watchable movie material. My strategy for biopics is to avoid them altogether no matter who's life it is, who directed the film, or who's in the cast.

@1 - I knew this was going to happen and I still read it. I don't know why I continue to do this to myself.

I remember once when I was young and I was interested in a movie there were these things we called "movie reviews". Basically someone with taste, good or bad, would see a movie and write a critique of the movie. I didn't always agree with the critic's taste. I never gave a fuck about the critic's formative years. Ever. Whoever wrote this "review" needs a new job.

@2 - "Great review for the movie, and while I have not seen it yet"

perhaps you should see the movie before considering this review great. I can appreciate a good takedown of a movie as much as anyone, but this one is both narcissistic and doesn't even seem to understand the movie it's taking down.

Gosh, that's too bad, Cholly. Biopics of jazz musicians don't come along very often, and it's upsetting that they wouldn't get the one about Miles Davis right. Of course there's precedent. Lady Sings the Blues was Barry Gordy's star wehicle for Diana Ross more than it was an intentional examination of the marvelously unique talent and the heartbreaking epoch of Lady Day.

You are so correct about jazz musicians. They are the best of their kind. One has to know his instrument so completely as for it to be an extension, and to know the music so well - backward and forward - in order to improvise and boldly, courageously variate.

I'll still probably see the film.

Wow ! You sure are a bigot Charles. White person this white kid that white teacher.. you have a real hard on for this. Maybe you should stop trying to see everything in black and white and start seeing them as human beings. As for Miles Davis, I love him. Ballad and Blue is my favorite album, so a biopic, which are notoriously inaccurate anyway, will not sway me one way or the other. Work on your humanity skills Charles.

I am completely disappointed in this review. It is nonsense! Are you serious? Do you know anything about Miles? This film is for people that know his genius/brilliance and don't mind an interpretation on the era that when stopped playing. Do you really think that uneducated people watched this as a gangsta film? If anything, it would have made those people want to know more about his legacy. Sure, Cheedle could have done a "Ray" like Jamie Foxx (and that film may still come). The truth is that Cheedle didn't want to take that cliche approach (or couldn't for a number of reasons), and show you something different, interesting, and 100min film worthy. It is a mere glimpse at a period of Miles life that we tend to brush over. I would have been indulgently hanging on to watch a 6 hour epic, to see in visual form everything that miles went through (from 15 cent pig snouts to 8-bit 80s miles)...but the best part about this film is that it is essentially a moment in miles own mind...a portrayal of his mind state during that time. It is somewhat completely open to interpretation. As someone else wrote, it's not about you mate! Seriously though, thank you Cheedle, Pras, Kevin Hart, the producers, and crowdfunding for making this happen.