Directed By George C. Wolfe

Starring – Chadwick Boseman, Viola Davis, Colman Domingo

The Plot – Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey (Davis). Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager (Jeremy Shamos) and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio’s claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee (Boseman), who has an eye for Ma’s girlfriend (Taylour Paige) and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry, spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories revealing truths that will forever change the course of their lives.

Rated R for adult language, some sexual content and brief violence

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom | Official Trailer | Netflix – YouTube

POSITIVES

– Transformational cinema. The most obvious aspect of the production that is evident from the very first shot of the movie, is its timely resonance of 1927 Americana, which is captured breathlessly in the aspect of some valuable production design that makes the delve seamless. Elegant wardrobe designs seen through the stitching of three piece suits and free-flowing gowns are deposited on every character lead, supporting, or background, channeling a fashion vibe in the midwest of Chicago that beats with the soul of the movie. Likewise, the sunbaked cinematography from Tobias A. Schliessler harvests a lot of lovely warm tones in crisp color, and suggestively enveloping shadows that continuously hints at drama afoot eating the group alive from within. Finally, the detail to set design, from vintage American automobiles to faded interior decor, to even outdated recording technology maintained an air for consistency that articulately channeled this particular place in time, and each find their way worked into the film so meticulously so that it never feels like decade porn of the cheapest kind.

– Indulging dialogue. This is the most dependable aspect of the film that will determine your interest and investment level to the film as such. For me, there was a naturalistic approach and evolution in the many speech patterns and verbal confrontations that arose with such earned honesty, flowing wonderfully off of one character to the next without ever feeling so obviously influenced by a writer with expositional intentions. In addition to this quality, the dialogue serves as a better tool than anything else towards establishing depth and meaning to every single character within this band, and not just the powerful titular character who so much of the focus revolves around. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised to the level that each character has their respective time to dominate the screen while each detail a story from their pasts that influenced a decision or meaning within the present. It often had me hanging onto every word searching for deeper meaning or evident indication of emotional instability, and preserved importance to every second of the 91 minute run time that continuously feels like it’s building to the big payoff.

– Toe-tapping score. Blues music is everywhere within composer Branford Marsalis’, but the level of impressive instrumentals held together with synthetic sound design gave off precision in the performances that made them feel like they were emanating in frame before our very eyes. This is obviously not the case with musical performances in movies, but the distortion of the microphones have a way of obscuring the smooth recording of what we’ve come to expect with typical cinematic sound mixing, creating an authenticity for Marsalis series of numbers that better feed into the spontaneity of the performances. As for the tracks themselves, there’s unfortunately only a small sampling of songs within this band that makes the cut, but easily my favorite is that of “Levee’s Song”, a trumpet-heavy instrumental that captures the fun and light-hearted atmosphere of the band when they play together on the same page. It’s a strong sampler of the bayou sound that ran a revolution up north in the 1920’s, and is just a singular example of the cultural flavor that runs free throughout Branford’s energetic compositions.

– Racial subtext. There’s plenty of meaning and subjection in the way racial divide is conjured in Wolfe’s film, but the most evident seems the way it motivates and confines even the most powerful of protagonists. Take Ma Rainey for instance, a no nonsense acclaimed singer who understands the constrictions of a contract, and how that “Deed for the devil” as she calls it goes far beyond a deal to produce records. This is occasionally hinted at in each of the band’s experiences that they detail in monologue throughout the film, and one that we as an audience don’t inherently experience until the end of the movie, but I found it freshly unique that in an age where racism has been covered exceptionally in cinema, there’s still films like this that capture the racial divide of economics and business politics. It’s also unique that this story takes place in the north, at a time when black communities were seeking fair opportunities. It proves that something as cancerous and destructive as racism doesn’t have geographical boundary lines, and better helps to rewrite some of that history that was initially written by the spoilers.

– As an adaptation. Most screenplays based on stage shows and musicals often lose the essence of what made the property special in the first place, but with “Ma Rainey’s” it prioritizes the stage feeling with a screenplay and structure that only adds a camera to divert its adaptation. It does this first off by establishing a majority of scenes around one common setting, where characters can move in and out of frame consistently, yet the heat of the environment remains persistent. In addition to this, it’s the way the shadows surround each character on a long-winded tirade, giving attention firmly to where play’s burn through one perspective at a time. On top of this, it’s the long-winded dialogue between each sequence and character that offers those momentary glimpses of scene-stealing registry, that are otherwise so far from fast paced consistency of what cinema offers. It maintains much of that stage feeling with three walls and a vantage point, but enhances it with a production value that the stage simply couldn’t afford, making this an adaptation that is every bit faithful and engaging for the three-dimensional beauty it disperses.

– Unique pacing. With this film indulging itself in the stage show perspective, there’s an unorthodox approach to the movie’s pacing and tonal inconsistency that merges cohesively with that of a blues song, complete with the high’s and low’s of emotional balance. Carefully and meticulously placed at the conclusion of every scene is a series of blow-off’s that serve as the culmination of every conversation and interaction. This glides the scene on a steady ascension of tonal evolution. What this does for pacing is frequently keep each act full of continuous movement that offers no clear moments of downtime that aren’t essential to the progression of the series of subplots, but beyond that prescribes a captivation for the many scenes that seem to hint that anything can happen at any time. It attains urgency in the matters that the characters discuss, and not necessarily the heat of the moment, with both sides eventually converging on a road of inevitable conclusion that none of them can escape.

– Immersive direction. Wolfe is someone who often toils in these matters of candid intimacy. That element of filmmaking continues with his work here, as Wolfe unweaves a camera composition of movements and angles that materialize as a spectator in the ensuing chaos that envelopes the characters together. But proximity is one thing, unabashed access is the real key, giving us insight and tabs on every single character before the others know it, making us the most valuable character of sorts housed underneath this roof of wild card personalities. This has an advantageous effect on the movie’s dramatically tense moments, particularly within the building pressure between a series of perfectly placed ingredients that we as the interpreters know is going to create a simmering boil to eventual levels of lid-blowing suffocation. It attains a level of masterful direction to Wolfe that I feel is far and away his best work to date, if even for the way he somehow attains a level of meticulous intensity throughout a film that is rampantly moving towards a brief finish line.

– Award worthy performances. Everyone on board is great here, but the phenomenal work of Davis and Boseman is generational levels of influence. Davis disappears in a splotchy make-up design and full body suit that transforms her before our very eyes, but it’s Viola’s captivation on the audience that is truly the prized piece, commanding Rainey as a revolutionary of sorts, complete with a no-nonsense hard-edge demeanor that dominates any room she decides to enter. For Boseman, this is unfortunately his final film, but one that preserves his single greatest acting performance to date as the occasionally seedy Levee. The twinkle in Boseman’s eyes of aspiration blankets an emotional complexity that ages gracefully throughout the film before giving in to a hard-to-swallow reality that his character continuously runs from. Boseman’s constant charisma plays handedly into Levee’s cultural ignorance, and gives us a hefty permanent imprint on the film that makes his role one of those that is simply irreplaceable no matter how many films they make about Ma Rainey.

– The final blow. Considering how the movie builds towards a climax that promises impactful devastation, the resolve is everything that is advertised, taking something so localized and intimate from within this building, and making it feel universally poignant because of the resounding effect that it magnifies for society. Considering I have never seen the play, and know very little about Ma Rainey or her bandmates, I was blown away by the events in the final ten minutes of the film, that certainly reshaped the way we see certain characters, but also reminded us painfully of the world that still lives and breathes beyond these walls where these characters felt blanketed by their talents. It saves the biggest and loudest moments of the film for the times when their impact can be heard the loudest, and leaves us on a bittersweet pill that cements an example of everything that has been discussed and hinted at throughout the film.

NEGATIVES

– Underwhelming A.D.R. The botchy audio deposits within this film served as its only weakness from an otherwise exceptional production, but one I can’t unfortunately overlook for the way it preserved unintentional laughter to the scenes it plagued. One such scene involves Levee getting physical with a girl on top of a piano, when he deposits an overwhelming laughter that simply isn’t mimicked in mouthing movements. This is far from the only scene this happens in, just the biggest and most memorable offender in total. In two different watches of this film, I counted four different instances where the audio didn’t line up properly to that of the actors mouth movements in frame, an aspect of production that was surprisingly disappointing considering much of the musical performances that were attained wonderfully with careful consistency.

My Grade: 9/10 or A