'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' film review: Boseman, Davis lead a powerful, blues-infused ensemble
Chadwick Boseman's final bow absolutely cements his legacy with one of the very finest performances of 2020 in the drama 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' (streaming on Netflix starting Dec. 18).
In short: During a recording session in 1927 Chicago, tensions rise between Ma Rainey (Viola Davis), her ambitious horn player Levee (Boseman) and the white management determined to control the uncontrollable "Mother of the Blues." Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman and Jeremy Shamos also star.
Boseman exudes passion and pure drive as the musician with big aspirations. His monologue about Levee's father is the stuff Academy Awards highlight reels are made of. When he is posthumously nominated for Best Actor, as damn well should be, then this stirring monologue should be the clip played during the nominee montage.
Even before Ma Rainey speaks one line of dialogue, she casts a long shadow over the film. Ma is an absolute diva. The opening number isn't just a some showcase for Davis and Boseman to showoff their stage presence - their power dynamic is on full display. More than 20 minutes passes before Ma finally becomes an active part of the film - but it's already completely obvious that she is not a woman to be trifled with, and she will not suffer a fool. Ma is a powerful force, but it's not without some powerful social commentary on the role of African Americans in entertainment and why she so fiercely defends her demands.
Playwright August Wilson's words translate perfectly in this big-screen adaptation of his play. The film, set in the Roaring Twenties, makes the audience very aware that these blues musicians know their place in society and history. They're but a few decades removed from the formal end of slavery and in the midst of African-Americans fleeing the Jim Crow laws of the South, looking for opportunity and hope. The very start of the film is a bit of a jarring misdirect - leading viewers to assume a pair of young black men running in the night are in danger. And that's exactly the point: the horrible realization that something as objectively innocent as black men running can be so easily interpreted as menacing or dangerous ... when it's plainly innocuous.
For a film set against the backdrop of a single recording session, 'Ma Rainey' finds Ma and Levee at pivotal points in their careers. Ma is absolutely uncompromising in her expectations - because she knows her value. Meanwhile, frustrated Levee resents the old timey flavor of Ma's songs, preferring a more pop-infused sound. The two characters have diametrically opposed approaches to dealing with "the white man" who runs the recording studios. But for all their differences that often put Ma and Levee at odds, they share a deep self-determinism that compels them. The film exudes a desperation and a keen awareness that everything can be taken away without a second thought.
Final verdict: Boseman and Davis deliver two of the year's best performances in this sharply crafted battle of wills, with a script that ruminates on the African American experience in the United States.
Score: 4/5
'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' streams on Netflix starting Dec. 18. This biographical drama is rated R for language, some sexual content and brief violence and has a running time of 93 minutes.
