The number of documentaries exclusively devoted to, or featuring, Miles Davis is not quite sufficient to constitute a subgenre. But it’s getting close.

Davis is a great subject: a landmark musician whose innovations have a continuing resonance, and a confounding personality whose abuse of women in particular leaves a bad taste .

“Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool,” directed by Stanley Nelson , doesn’t presume to be the last cinematic word on the artist, but within its nearly two-hour confines, this production aims for comprehensiveness. Its omission of any mention of Teo Macero — the producer who oversaw Davis’s most vital work — notwithstanding, the movie is commendably thorough.