Miles Ahead

Miles Ahead (2016) is Don Cheadle's portrait of Miles Davis — written, directed by, and starring Cheadle — and you can watch it online on iFILM. Rather than a straight chronological biopic, the film cuts between Davis's silent years in the late 1970s (no recordings, no performances, a man holed up in his Manhattan townhouse) and the arc of his career from Charlie Parker's quintet to the recordings that rewired jazz.

Ewan McGregor plays a Rolling Stone journalist who worms his way into Davis's orbit, and their scenes together have a loose, improvisational energy that matches the subject. Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, and Esperanza Spalding all appear as themselves. Cheadle isn't interested in giving you a clean origin story — he's more interested in how a person sounds when they're coming apart, and in how the music survived anyway. Stream Miles Ahead (2016) online on iFILM.