Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Grade: B

Director George C. Wolfe’s film adaptation of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is based on the play of the same name by August Wilson. Any version had been unseen by me until last night, when I watched the film on Netflix. It is an afternoon in the life of a blues band doing some recording in a sultry Chicago studio in 1927. Viola Davis won a much-deserved Supporting Actress Oscar four years ago for her work in August Wilson’s Fences. She is back in Wilson territory (and nominated for Best Actress) here as Ma Rainey, the “mother of the blues.” She is a domineering diva, but that isn’t the character’s only dimension. We get glimpses of feelings in the layers underneath that suggest why she is like this. And she makes sure the people who mean the most to her are well taken care of, which I respect. Obviously, Viola Davis and August Wilson’s material go together like peas and carrots.

Some of my favorite scenes were where the band is just bantering. No exposition awkwardly beaten over our heads, no furthering of plot points – just talk. Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, and Michael Potts easily make us believe they have known and played with one another their whole lives. Every song begins with the same count-in: “A-one, a-two, a-you know what to do…” Enter young 32-year-old whippersnapper Levee (Chadwick Boseman) on trumpet. He is cocky but clearly talented, and we get the feeling he has some more growing up to do.

I imagine the stage version is longer, more fleshed out, and breathes a bit better. I appreciated the efficient, unintimidating running time of the Netflix film, but there is a chock full of drama jam-packed into this hour and 34 minutes. In such a short time, these actors sing, play, dance, canoodle, sweat, spit, bleed, and deliver the kind of impassioned sob-story backstory monologues that Oscar clips are made of. I was genuinely affected by much of what these hardworking performers do here – but I also wondered if all their recording sessions were like that.

The wealth of material is well-sold. The late, great Chadwick Boseman is nominated for Best Actor for this, and he has the kind of appeal that makes us like the character more than Levee has a right to be liked. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a fun, touching, entertaining spectacle that is easy to digest. It’s not perfect, but I have a feeling it does the play proud. I hope it turns more people on to the stage production. It did for me.

Grade: B