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
- SnoopyStyle - 17 April 2022
powerful
It's 1927. Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) is a strong-willed blues singer who is popular with her black audience. She leaves the south to do a recording in Chicago with white producers. Levee Green (Chadwick Boseman) is the brash younger session trumpet player who dreams of doing his own songs.
This is a powerful movie dealing race relations in America. These are big performances. Davis and Boseman are only the tip of the iceberg. There are great performances up and down the line. One thing I do notice. The movie doesn't show the most overt racial violence. The racist cop's initial confrontation with Ma Rainey isn't shown. The Coca-Cola incident is cut short without the actual purchasing. The film seems to be leaving these incidents to the imagination of the audience like the stories being told by the black characters. There is an unexpected power in it. In its main theme, these and other incidents have all piled up in Levee's head like it's piling up in my mind. They push him over the edge in the climatic scene. One can really sense Levee's collapse into darkness. It's a powerful pivotal scene and the heart of the matter. The boy has just had enough and it's heartbreaking.
