Cadillac Records

Cadillac Records dramatizes the rise of Chess Records, the Chicago label that brought blues, rhythm and blues and early rock and roll to a wide audience. Set in the 1950s and 1960s, it follows the producer Leonard Chess as he builds the company and gathers artists such as Muddy Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry and Etta James, tracing both their breakthroughs and the tensions of the era around race and money.

Darnell Martin wrote and directed the film, which stands as her first feature in the chronological list of her directing credits, ahead of Firelight and Wish You Well. Adrien Brody plays Leonard Chess, with Jeffrey Wright as Muddy Waters, Gabrielle Union as Geneva Wade, Columbus Short as Little Walter, Cedric the Entertainer as Willie Dixon and Emmanuelle Chriqui as Revetta Chess. Sofia Sondervan and Andrew Lack produced, and the large credited company of 71 cast members and 49 crew reflects the ensemble scale of the project.

Made for about 12 million USD, the film returned roughly 9 million USD worldwide, so it did not recover its budget at the box office. Audience responses were warmer than critical ones: it holds 7/10 on IMDb from around 24,000 votes and 7.1/10 on TMDB from about 493 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 6.1/10 from 122 reviews.