Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

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Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: Movie Clip - Got Talent

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Ma Rainey's Black Bottom: Trailer 1

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Cast & Crew

Viola Davis
Ma Rainey

Chadwick Boseman
Levee

Glynn Turman
Toledo

Colman Domingo
Cutler

Michael Potts
Slow Drag

Taylour Paige
Dussie Mae

Dusan Brown
Sylvester

Jonathan Coyne
Sturdyvant

Jeremy Shamos
Irvin

Joshua Harto
Policeman

George C. Wolfe
Director

Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Screenwriter

Todd Black
Producer

Denzel Washington
Producer

Dany Wolf
Producer

Tobias A. Schliessler
Cinematographer

Andrew Mondshein
Film Editor

Branford Marsalis
Original Music

Mark Ricker
Production Design

Karen O'Hara
Set Decoration

Ann Roth
Costume Designer

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Critic Reviews for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Audience Reviews for Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

• Mar 08, 2021

  August Wilson's 1982 play, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom , was one of ten-plays in the writer's "Pittsburgh Cycle" (Rainey being the only one of the ten not set in Pittsburgh) that chronicled the twentieth century African-American experience. Like most if not all of Wilson's writing Ma Rainey was meant to "raise consciousness through theater". Wilson's writing of the Black experience was something I first encountered my senior year of high school via Fences. As a Caucasian who attended a school with a student body that was more or less split right down the middle when it came to racial ratios the African American experience was something that was present without being particularly regarded as drastically different. Maybe it was simply my naïveté, but in my fifteen to eighteen year-old mind it was as simple as the fact that slavery, racism, and Martin Luther King had happened, what they had to deal with was wrong and terrible, but the actions they took had been worth it and upended those injustices for future generations. We as a society had grown past the ignorance of such things and while that statement in and of itself may now ring of more ignorance than ever I genuinely believe if one were to ask any of the Black kids I attended high school with that many would agree they felt the same way. Obviously, this isn't a diatribe against the need to highlight the many injustices that have been inflicted upon African Americans throughout the twentieth century and into present day, but rather a slice of insight into just how powerful, eye-opening, and - most importantly - how necessary literature documenting the Black experience is. This is all to say that director George C. Wolfe's interpretation of Wilson's material focuses largely on the theme of the burden Black people feel to do something with their time in order to ensure prosperity for future generations. The idea many of these individuals aren't allowed to lead a life where such issues don't impact their day to day drives certain characters present in Ma Rainey to purpose while pushing others to the edge. Wilson's exploration of contradiction in this American life through faith versus vindication or expectation versus the truth of the matter transforms the heated racial tension of 1920's Chicago into a pertinent commentary on how a system designed on the promise of possibility grants equal opportunities for repression; all of which is conveyed through the mood of the blues. read the whole review at www.reviewsfromabed.com
  Philip P Super Reviewer
• Dec 30, 2020

  Two new movies are poised for major awards consideration, both based on plays by black authors, and both providing insights into the injustices and experiences of different black Americans from the past. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is available on Netflix streaming and One Night in Miami will soon be available through Amazon Prime in January, and both movies are observant, reflective, unsparing, hard-hitting, and provide some of the best acting you'll see in movies this year. In 1930s Chicago, Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) is assembling a team of musicians to record her latest blues single "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Cutler (Colman Domingo) will play trombone, Slow Drag (Michael Potts) will play the bass, old man Toledo (Glynn Turman) will play piano, and Levee (Chadwick Boseman) will play the trumpet. Levee has big ideas about what he can offer, and the rest of the band is happy to simply play their parts. Ma Rainey has her own demands for the record, some of which run counter to Levee and her own manager, and the many personalities will come into direct conflict on one very hot summer day. The big reason to see Ma Rainey, beyond the fact that it's an amazing adaption of a great August Wilson play, is because it's the final film performance from the late Chadwick Boseman. The world was stunned when the Black Panther actor suddenly died in August in the prime of his career. He had been hiding a years-long battle with colon cancer that only made his work ethic more astonishing. This man knew his life could very likely be cut short, but he wanted to make a difference by using his celebrity status to portray a gallery of historical heroes like Thurgood Marshall and James Brown. Of course, it also raises the question why waste your valuable time on something as mediocre as 21 Bridges. Regardless, with this new knowledge, it's impossible not to find extra layers of meaning with Boseman's final remarkable performance. Immediately you notice how thin he is, lanky, and now we know why. The character feels like someone just stringing along on the faintest of threads, a hope for a better tomorrow, and Boseman's gaunt physical form reinforces that desperate impression. There's also a moving moment where Levee is monologuing about his disdain for God's lack of intervention in his life, during his mother's assault by a team of white men, during the entire experience of every African American. It's hard not to read the actor's own personal struggle into this confrontational moment, lashing out at the unfairness of a life denied too early, and it just makes a tragic figure even more wearingly tragic. The final image is so summative of Levee's tragedy and the music industry profiting off the entrenched exploitation of black musicians, that it feels so dispiriting even without further explanation. The entire time I was relishing Boseman's performance like one final meal, and the man makes a feast of it. Another critic compared Boseman's performance to an athlete "leaving it all on the field," and I couldn't agree more. The man gives you everything he has. It's not a subdued and subtle performance, though Wilson's plays don't tend to settle for subdued characters speaking with pronounced subtlety (see: Fences). The playwright's gift is for crafting big characters with big personalities and big problems, and that's the way we like it. Levee is a character with more than chip on his shoulder, he has the whole block. He's bursting with nervous energy, masked as excitement, and eager to finally hit those last few hurdles and get the fame he feels is destined. The other members of the accompaniment are older, settled in their ways and comfortably pessimistic about The Way the World Works. They know the deck is stacked against them and they have accepted this injustice ("Be happy with what you can get," they argue). Levee is still fighting, still hoping he can break through on the merits of his talents and perseverance, and we can all suspect the hard reality that will come crashing down later. Boseman is captivating from start to finish. It's his greatest performance of his all-too short career and one I fully expect to sweep come the delayed awards season. It's the best male acting I've seen for all of 2020. As I kept watching, a sadness washed over me, much like watching Heath Ledger during the end of 2008's The Dark Knight, a melancholy realization that this is it, it's almost over, and this is all we'll ever get from an actor who was just beginning to make substantial waves and leave their mark on the industry. While Boseman's lead is the biggest draw, Ma Rainey has plenty other aspects deserving of praise. Every character gets time to be fleshed out into feeling like real, complicated people with complicated pasts worth illuminating. Most of the play's characters are black musicians during a very racist period in American history (you could readily argue that this description applies to all periods). They know they're being exploited, and they know that these smiling white men with money are only being polite as long as they have something to offer that these men want. Even Ma is aware of her leverage. She's a successful singer who sells plenty of records, but fame can be fleeting, and her records aren't selling like they used to, and she knows time is short. She'll be cast off and replaced by another singer/performer who doesn't have the wherewithal to push back. Davis (Widows) is a force in this movie, flinty and proud and no-nonsense. She's great even if she has less screen time than any of the male musicians. It feels like more could be had from exploring her character, her passions, her lesbianism, her sense of self, but Davis still makes quite a presence. The injustice of the circumstances of the musicians are emblematic of the black experience with America a hundred years hence. Levee has a monologue about his father having to sell his own land to his wife's attackers. Cutler has a monologue about a preacher who got off on the wrong train stop in Florida and was harassed and threatened by an unruly crowd, his vestments serving him no mercy from a racist mob. Wilson's wonderful words are brought to sterling life from these seasoned performers and their digressions and reflections better paint a thematic mosaic of shared communal pain. The way the movie holds your attention even when Boseman isn't on screen is a testament to how engaging and well-realized Wilson's characters can be no matter how small. The biggest question with play adaptations is the challenge of making them feel bigger and more cinematic than contained conversations. Nobody wants to feel trapped in a broom closet. First time film director Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) gets the most from her performers and handling of the subject matter, though the various rooms inside and outside the Miami motel provide little in the way of variance. The men go to the roof to watch the fireworks. A couple leave to go get some liquor. The focus is on the men, so the background of the setting isn't a huge deal to the entertainment. King's direction is more felt in the performances, as most actors-turned-directors tend to be, and with that she's aces. With Ma Rainey, director George C. Wolfe (The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks) does an excellent job of opening the spaces visually but also making the spaces reflective of mood. The ashy rundown basement where the band practices, the sweat-glistening off the performers with the hot, daub lighting, the peeling paint and broken doors leading to symbolic dead-ends. Wolfe has a stronger command of visuals, not just making his pictures pretty, but also making his play-turned-film feel less confined by its original stage bound limitations. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and One Night in Miami are both deserving of your attention. I found Ma Rainey to be the more engaging movie with the higher artistic peaks, anchored by an amazing and career-defining performance from Chadwick Boseman. One Night in Miami is consistently probing and generous and thoughtful and superbly acted as well. Both movies are great tools for empathy and interesting to take together considering they churn with experiences of black characters fighting for equality from a broken system several decades apart. There have been gains made from the time period of Ma Rainey but Malcolm X's complaints are extremely valid, and many resonate today in the face of systematic racism and police brutality. Watch both movies when available and welcome more black-penned plays making the big screen leap. Nate's Grade: A-
  Nate Z Super Reviewer

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