It was a weird moment of sour grapes last month when Etta James publicly called out Beyoncé Knowles for singing the blues legend’s “At Last” at Barack Obama’s inaugural ball—announcing onstage that Beyoncé was going to “get her ass whipped” for copping her signature song. What made it particularly strange was that, just months ago, James had high praise for B’s portrayal of herself—which included a scene where she sang “At Last”—in Cadillac Records, a sorely slept-on movie about Chicago’s Chess Records, now out on DVD.

Directed by Darnell Martin, Cadillac Records never made it to theatres here (it played only a week in Toronto), which is unfortunate. Though it’s told in a bit of an obvious, episodic style, with some corny moments, it’s full of great music and really superb performances. Adrien Brody plays Leonard Chess, who co-founded the label (along with his brother Phil, eliminated from the story here presumably for narrative efficiency).

Muddy Waters, who’s first glimpsed as he’s being recorded by Alan Lomax (Tony Bentley) becomes his first big star; he’s played with a suave intensity by the always excellent Jeffrey Wright. Legendary names like James, Chuck Berry (Mos Def), Willie Dixon (Cedric the Entertainer), Howlin’ Wolf (an amazingly charismatic Eamonn Walker) and Little Walter (Columbus Short) would soon become part of the label’s roster. It’s all a bit formless and anecdotal, but the music and cast are both amazing and if you’re at all a fan of the music, it’s definitely worth seeing.

Long unavailable except on scratchy 16mm prints, Wong Kar-Wai’s Ashes of Time has been restored and prettied up, becoming Ashes of Time Redux in the process. Wong’s only venture into the wuxia (martial arts) genre is as elliptical and poetic as the rest of his body of work; this is a sometimes confusing but radiantly beautiful film, and worth returning to, if only to wash the taste of My Blueberry Nights out of your mouth. It’s available now on both DVD and Blu-Ray.