Miles Ahead
Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: April 1, 2016 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 39 Critic Reviews
Positive:
24
Mixed:
13
Negative:
2
Watch Now
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
90
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 31, 2016
Does it matter that stretches of Miles Ahead — a gun-rattling, squealing-tire car chase included — came out of the filmmakers’ imagination rather than Davis’s life? (Mr. Cheadle shares script credit with Steven Baigelman.) Purists may howl, but they’ll also miss the pleasure and point of this playfully impressionistic movie. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comAngelica Jade BastienApr 7, 2016
Miles Ahead is a film of ugly, bold bravado. Read full review
83
HitfixDrew McWeenyJan 24, 2016
While there is an untruth at the heart of the film, it's in service of illuminating any number of smaller truths, and I find that approach fascinating. Read full review
80
SalonAndrew O'HehirMar 31, 2016
To give a performance this layered and complex and unstinting while also directing the film around it, which is risky and imaginative and full of life, testifies to impressive powers of concentration. Read full review
80
New York Daily NewsStephen Whitty Mar 30, 2016
Directed by, and starring, Don Cheadle, it's more about truth than facts. Did this all happen just the way it's laid out? Definitely not. But if the notes are wrong, the themes are right. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanApr 21, 2016
Don Cheadle dominates Miles Ahead. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 19, 2016
Miles Ahead is a performance showcase, and might have seemed like a sure Oscar nomination for Cheadle, on paper, had the picture been more complete, more fulfilling. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaApr 15, 2016
Miles Ahead is more a provocative character sketch than a meaty portrait, but it's a film that should be applauded for its daring, and for Cheadle's shape-shifting, soul-baring work. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperApr 7, 2016
Cheadle the director, producer and co-writer boldly goes for broke with mixed results in this highly fictionalized version of the Miles Davis legend — and Cheadle the actor gives a brilliant performance worthy of an Oscar nomination. Read full review
75
Washington PostStephanie MerryApr 7, 2016
The story can shift from uproarious to heartbreaking in the span of a scene, but Cheadle, in his feature directorial debut, controls the tone like a veteran. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsApr 7, 2016
The reason I like Miles Ahead, despite its problems, has everything to do with Cheadle both behind and in front of the camera. Read full review
75
IndieWireEric KohnOct 10, 2015
Erratic, unpredictable and constantly intriguing, Miles Ahead plays more like one of Davis' compositions than a traditional biopic, stumbling around with flashes of insight and a brilliant central performance. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzApr 7, 2016
Miles Ahead is by no means a perfect film, but it is an interesting one. In this case, driven by Cheadle’s performance, that’s more than enough. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlMar 30, 2016
Cheadle's tender eyes and scraped-raw whisper prove reason enough for Davis fans to give Miles Ahead a go: Just often enough, I thought, "Holy shit, this is what a day with Miles might feel like." Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 24, 2016
This is probably Cheadle’s most electrified performance since the one that made him a star, as the incorrigibly homicidal Mouse in "Devil in a Blue Dress." Read full review
70
Screen DailyGraham FullerOct 12, 2015
First-time feature director Don Cheadle has made an invigoratingly bold attempt to structure his film about Miles Davis as an extended visual and narrative equivalent of modal jazz. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyOct 10, 2015
The abstraction of the approach perhaps limits the scope of Miles Ahead as an acting showcase, though in Cheadle's fully inhabited characterization, he nails the subject's soft, nicotine-scratched rasp and his eccentric irritability and paranoia with discerning understatement. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenApr 13, 2016
The fabricated story that propels the movie, though tenable as events that might have occurred, is insufficient to seize our attention. It’s like a bent note that never finds its correct register. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerApr 1, 2016
Miles Ahead is obviously a labor of love, but it falls into the trap of so many biopics about anguished artists – it confuses the anguish with the artistry. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloMar 30, 2016
So give Don Cheadle credit for innovation, at least: His Miles Davis biopic (which he directed, co-wrote, and stars in), Miles Ahead, tackles the problem head-on… by inventing cinematic things for Davis to do when he’s not playing music, including ludicrous car chases and gunfights. Read full review
67
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezOct 12, 2015
Miles Ahead is well-intentioned and ambitious, but ultimately uneven, as it cannot redefine the structures its so desperately wants to break down. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrApr 14, 2016
It’s all deeply felt and just as deeply unfocused, and that, more than the invented story line, betrays the movie’s subject. Read full review
63
New York PostLou LumenickMar 31, 2016
Don Cheadle gives one of the best performances of his career as jazz legend Miles Davis in Miles Ahead, even if his debut as a director ends up being an unfocused disappointment. Read full review
63
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 30, 2016
Like "Born To Be Blue," Miles Ahead is allergic to all things biopic, especially the cheap psychology and the effort to tie up a complex life with a neat bow. Read full review
60
Total FilmJames MottramDec 21, 2016
Meandering like a jazz riff, Miles Ahead is a curio that doesn't quite come off. But credit Cheadle, both in front and behind camera, for refusing to play the easy notes. Read full review
60
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottApr 21, 2016
This is a jazz movie, both in style and in substance, and so, rather, his goal is to try to capture the fog-like essence of Miles. Read full review
60
Time OutJoshua RothkopfApr 15, 2016
Cheadle is so good as the cryptic Davis—coiled to strike, soulful, wounded, boldly outspoken—that you wonder if a more traditionally structured biojazz picture à la Ray or Bird might have been a better showcase for what's obviously a passion project. Read full review
60
EmpireDan JolinApr 11, 2016
A largely inventive and energetic portrayal of a past-their-prime music legend that’s let down by its unnecessary trad biopic beats. Read full review
60
The GuardianJordan HoffmanOct 12, 2015
Cheadle’s got the cred, and the period evocation is tremendous. It’s just that I’m not sure he has all that much to say Read full review
60
VarietyNick SchagerOct 10, 2015
Don Cheadle flails about trying to channel the spirit of late jazz-trumpeting legend Miles Davis in Miles Ahead, a biopic that rejects typical genre conventions to the point of chasing itself down lame, tangential paths. Read full review
58
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerJan 26, 2016
In fits and starts, the film matches the fire of its lead performance. Miles Ahead is far from a traditional, boilerplate music biopic, for better and worse alike. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesPaul de BarrosApr 21, 2016
The problem with Miles Ahead isn’t the playful, broad license it takes with Davis’ story, but that it’s so silly. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)James AdamsApr 14, 2016
What hurts Miles Ahead, though, is a lack of imagination. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubApr 7, 2016
Cheadle the actor is nearly perfect in the role. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneApr 4, 2016
The whole saga, complete with shootings and a car chase, is cooked up for the film. Meanwhile, when it comes to those with whom Davis worked so fruitfully to forge what he calls “social music,” we get nothing of Dizzy Gillespie or John Coltrane, say, and only the odd glimpse of Gil Evans (Jeffrey Grover). Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranMar 31, 2016
The sophistication gap between the character Cheadle has created and the film that contains him is so great it begins to feel like you're watching two different stories that have been unaccountably spliced together. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineElise NakhnikianOct 15, 2015
Less a character study than an impressionistic portrait of a troubled artist's internal chaos, it supplies just enough Miles Davis to leave us jonesing for more. Read full review
30
SlateFred KaplanApr 7, 2016
The remarkable feat of churning out a whole new set of clichés and setting a new level of degradation. That’s Miles Ahead, Don Cheadle’s biopic about Miles Davis. Read full review
25
ObserverRex ReedMar 31, 2016
Actor-turned-director Don Cheadle trashes the historic career of Miles Davis in Miles Ahead, named after one of the greatest albums ever made by one of the most influential musicians of all time. Read full review
More From This Movie

64 Critic Reviews

6.3 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 72 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL