It boasts an interesting cast, and the music remains unimpeachable, but this Chess Records biopic suffers from a workmanlike script -- as well as comparisons to its recent predecessor, Cadillac Records.
It boasts an interesting cast, and the music remains unimpeachable, but this Chess Records biopic suffers from a workmanlike script -- as well as comparisons to its recent predecessor, Cadillac Records.
The life story of legendary record producer Leonard Chess, founder of Chess Records, the label that helped popularize Blues music during the 1950s and '60s
It was muscled out of the marketplace by Cadillac Records, Sony's glossy, star-studded movie about Leonard. But it's clearly the better movie, earthier, wittier, and more intimate in its treatment of America's racial divide in the 1950s.
I think more edge is needed, more reality about the racial situation at the time, more insight into how and why R&B and rock 'n' roll actually did forever transform societies in America and the world.
Isn't the blues supposed to be cathartic and rock 'n' roll liberating? Recording maestro Chess is too tense and grim, and there are few joyous musical moments.
In Who Do You Love? everything that Chess Records has come to symbolize about pop culture, race relations or the blues transitioning into rock 'n' roll gets flattened. It perceives American history in reverse.
Well-made, terrifically acted biopic about the Chicago Chess Brothers and their legendary Chess label and artists who propelled blues into a new genre called rock 'n' roll. A cornucopia of great music, though some cinematic notes are off-key.
Too bad this flick lost the race to the theaters with Cadillac Records, otherwise director Jerry Zaks might've had a hit on his hands instead of a Johnny Come Lately destined to be forever thought of as a cheap imitation.
Granted, this life-and-times adaptation doesn't rely on celebrity stunt-casting, but it also lacks any of the heat, heart or soul associated with the music Chess released.
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