Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Tensions rise when the trailblazing Mother of the Blues and her band gather at a Chicago recording studio in 1927. Adapted from August Wilson's play.

  • Released: 2020-11-25
  • Runtime: 94 minutes
  • Genre: Drama, Music
  • Stars: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts, Jonny Coyne, Taylour Paige, Jeremy Shamos, Dusan Brown, Joshua Harto, Quinn VanAntwerp, Antonio Fierro, Roger Petan, Daniel Johnson
  • Director: George C. Wolfe
 Comments
  • proud_luddite - 19 January 2024
    Boseman stands out in a great film
    Based on the fictional play by August Wilson: in Chicago during the summer of 1927, the legendary real-life blues singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) is set up for a recording session prepared by white producers. Among the tensions during the session: the band's very talented trumpeter, Levee Green (Chadwick Boseman) has ambitions of going solo.

    The film uses advantages that that are an improvement on the play version. Editing reduces a long scene that involved a young man with a pronounced stutter doing a recorded intro. And two additional scenes (not in the play) add to the film's impact. One involved Ma's late arrival and all the chaos in the journey (in the play, this was only narrated after the arrival); and an extra scene tagged at the end adds to the overall impact regarding the racial tensions referred to in the story.

    Another scene that was kept as is was Levee's narration of his family's tragic history and racial victimization. Screenwriter Ruben Santiago-Hudson and director George C. Wolfe were wise to keep this scene as it was without using a flashback device despite the scene's length. Why? Because Boseman was one of those performers who could be riveting even while reading an instruction manual. He is extremely powerful in this scene as he was in another one where he renounces the existence of God. His untimely death shortly before the film's release caused this brilliant performance to be his swan-song. A great loss, indeed.

    Davis is also powerful in many scenes as a manipulative diva who knows her worth. She's at her best showing Ma's softer side when elaborating on the existence of the blues.

    The dramatic ending might not have been necessary and it also leaves a very depressing feeling. But with so much going for it including costumes, cinematography, and set designs that beautifully recall the 1920s, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" is a standout film. - dbamateurcritic

    RATING: 9 out of 10

    OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT: Acting by Chadwick Boseman.
  • cabliss - 26 June 2022
    A slow burn drama that really packed a punch - I couldn't take my eyes off
    Amazing performances, great dialogue, costume and makeup that really capture the era. Can imagine why this isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I was captivated by it.
  • gasifib - 19 January 2022
    Musikaaa
    August Wilson's 1982 play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom was one of ten plays in the Pittsburgh Cycle (the only one of the ten plays not set in Pittsburgh) that told of the African American experience of the twentieth century. Like most, if not all, of Wilson's works, Ma Rainey's play was intended to "raise consciousness through theater." I first encountered what Wilson writes about the black experience when I was a senior in high school, watching Fences. As a Caucasian who went to school with a student body that was more or less divided right down the middle when it came to race relations, the African American experience was something that was present but not seen as radically different.
  • javuchu - 26 August 2021
    Going nowhere
    This film is all about its heavy dialogue that leads nowhere. The acting is supreme and the short musical scenes are very enjoyable, but the story itself lacks of purpose or finish line. You will spend most time of the movie not knowing where it's going.