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
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
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
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