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Cadillac Records, which takes a look at the early origins of rock 'n' roll at Chess Records in Chicago, has got critics dancing in the aisles. Writes A.O. Scott in the New York Times: "So much passion, so much pain, so much tenderness and violence. If you dig up an album from the heyday of Chess Records, you'll find all that and more. And Cadillac Records is nearly as good as one of those albums, which is saying a lot." Rafer Guzm?n in Newsday agrees: "Fast, crisp and lively, the film packs a half-dozen stories into two hours with little time for melodrama or sermonizing. The dialogue is quick and sharp; short scenes make powerful points. The film's main flaw is doting on its overwrought star, Beyonc? Knowles, but then she's an executive producer," he writes. On the other hand Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer admires Knowles's performance: "Beyonc? delivers," she writes, "if more powerfully as actress than as a soul thrush." And Bob Strauss concludes in the Los Angeles Daily News: "It's not the most incisive or even focused show-biz history flick, but the music is great, the performances delightful." But Michael O'Sullivan in the Washington Post comments that the film "feels disappointingly bloated and too fast-paced by half. It's an LP record played at 45 rpm. (If you don't know what that means, ask your parents.)"