Review: "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" does August Wilson proud
Sunday, December 20, 2020 at 11:11AM by Nathaniel R
"Deep Moanin' Blues" - Ma's introduction
We see black suffering so often in films that the slightest purposeful subversion of that expectation can stun. You could easily mistake the first shot of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, for instance, for a slave drama. It's a wide shot of a dark quiet forest, crickets chirping, that's punctuated by two men running breathlessly through it, and then the sound of dogs barking as if in pursuit. Two lit torches at the end of the shot, however, don't spell doom but joy. The only escape these men are currently after is communal experience. They're headed for a tent concert where folks are already lined up to pay their coins (a sharp detail) before the camera swoops up to see "Ma" Rainey (Viola Davis) humming those "Deep Moanin' Blues" before a joyful crowd.
Not, mind you, that Ma Rainey's Black Bottom replaces suffering with joy. It just nods to their connection before announcing everything else it has on its mind. Which is quite a lot...
Levee's new shoes
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom isn't a traditional musical but instead a drama about musicians. Yet it still begins in the way great movie musicals do. You can pack a lot of narrative information into a single song cinematically with the right camera decisions, cutaways, and montage. In the first six minutes alone, without any dialogue at all, we get a history lesson of The Great Migration, the tension between Ma Rainey and her new trumpeter Levee (Chadwick Boseman), the thematic minefield of Commerce and Art, and like a light being switched on, or a too bright sunrise, the shift from the South to the North. The light reveals both new economic opportunities and the sobering cost of them.
One of the significant surprises of the play/movie is that the commanding titular character isn't always as present as her 'boys in the band'. It's a delicious curlicue of the play that though we're continually reminded that only Ma Rainey matters -- and Ma Rainey herself loves to underline that -- there's very little proof of it onscreen. Her rival Bessie Smith, name-checked flippantly as if she doesn't care (she does), sells more records and Ma is continually threatening to give up recording altogether (thus walking out of her own story) and return to the South where she's appreciated.
It'd be an empty world without the blues.
Meanwhile there's mutiny within her own band as Levee considers her music "jug band shit" and keeps wanting to rearrange the material to pep it up and give it more appeal to black audiences in northern cities like Chicago and Harlem. Ma's career is threatened and her power is finite and temporary. She deploys it in short bursts to prove that it still exists. Aside from the semi-distractions of a fat suit and dubbed vocals, Viola is triumphant. The great atress risks big-theater for this headlining role and the broad strokes pay off given the material and that so much of Ma's obstinance is, itself, a performance to make others suffer. That said, despite the size of the performance the little details are heavenly. I particularly loved the way Ma bristles and puffs herself up internally when anyone disapproves of her -- the shot of her draping herself on her young lover Dussie Mae and her nephew while black city folks look on in judgment, is a pissy joy, or the way she slides so imperceptibly between self-worth and self-serving rationalizations that it's hard to separate them.
Whenever Viola isn't (appropriately) show-boating, which is much of the time, we're in rehearsal with band leader Cutler (Colman Domingo), piano man Toledo (Glynn Turman), bassist Slow Drag (Michael Potts) and trumpeter Levee. They're continually laughing, bickering, philosophizing... and waiting around and waiting on Ma.
Robust emotional, thematic, and character-rich material like Ma Rainey's Black Bottom lives or dies by the acting ensemble and all involved rise to meet the great material. So let's highlight everyone: Taylour Paige is a funny femme joy as Ma's gold-digging plaything Dussie Mae. Jeremy Shamos really sells the flop-sweat of middle-management caught between white power structures and a black diva who knows her worth. Johnny Coyne is at first all cartoon fuse-blowing as the exeuctive Sturdyvant, who can't deal with Ma's stubbornness, but then utterly chilling when cheating Levee, abling illustrating the play's ideas about power hiearchies and exploitation. Dusan Brown does fine work as Ma's stuttering nephew and his momentary triumph and joy in music-making is endearing. Glynn Turman is a perfect foil and unwitting kindling for Levee's youthful naive fire, as his character Toledo pontificates about life and the black experience. Michael Potts ably and quietly supports his fellow bandmates (though Slow Drag is, we'd argue, the only truly underwritten character). Colman Domingo, the ever reliable actor who ought to be a bigger star, is instantly recognizable as a people-pleasing kind of ringleader. You know the type. They get along with everyone, hold the center, and mediate with aplomb. Cutler is a semi-expert at cooling Ma's fires, mostly by letting her speak, and assumes he'll be able to get there with Levee.
It's a fateful mistake.
I got my time comin' to me.
Levee is walking trauma, rare talent, and youthful abandon all in one trash-talking package. Boseman is a marvel from his high-spirited intro, shoes first, to his shockingly vulnerable confession monologue, to his rage against both the white man and God, and on through to his inevitable exhausted defeat. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom has the awful privilege of being the last vehicle for Chadwick Boseman's gift. And what a gift. Boseman pours himself so thoroughly into the role that it's hard not to wonder if he knew it would be his swansong. Despite all of Levee's adult self-regard he's still essentially a wounded child - watch the way his eyes dart for approval when he reminds his bandmates that "everybody can't play like I do" while boasting about his musical future. Boseman packs such conflicting complex emotion into every scene and such fire into his blasphemous pronouncements against god that you worry for his soul even if you aren't religious! It's the single best performance of an impressive but tragically short career.
One repeated motif in the play finds Levee continually trying to open a jammed door as a way out of the stifling rehearsal space. In one very wise stage-to-cinema adjustment, he finally opens it only to enter an even smaller enclosed brick space; it's one of those weird entombed atriums that sometime happen between city buildings. The shot is brief and not particularly subtle but it really sells the no-way out conundrum of gifted black artists in a time that wasn't ready for them. Another evocative only-in-cinema moment is a cutaway during Toledo's "leftovers" monologue when we see exquisitely lit shots of isolated black people staring off into space in the city. It's not remotely naturalistic cinema but neither is it straight theater.
Director George C Wolfe is a legend on Broadway, winning Tonys for directing both straight dramas and musicals. As you can imagine both skill sets come in handy here in taking on one of August Wilson's most famous plays. Wolfe and his skilled department heads, particularly legendary costume designer Ann Roth, choose the right visual and sonic information to share but mostly they let August Wilson's lauded play soar and the brilliant actors interpret his text. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. You don't hear the reverse as often though in the hands of masters, it's true. The number of pictures a great playwright like August Wilson can paint with superb actors as brushes and colors is humbling.
Grade: A-
Oscar Chances: Strong across the board but particularly with the actors branch. Will the craft branches respond as enthusiastically?
Reader Comments (50)
Saw it last night — powerful performances, especially Boseman. I feel like it needed to be opened up just a bit more, as it felt like a filmed play (and not cinema) with so many monologues. But loved that it was 90 minutes, loved the interplay between the actors, and just a chilling ending.
I was conflicted with the outburst of trivial violence done by Levee. But I was chilled with that ending of white guys singing Levee's song. As for the film, it's a well-crafted film adaptation of a play, and this is the closest this material will get to a cinematic spectacle.
I believe Viola can win for this role. Her presence lingers all throughout the film even when she's not there. I love the tiny details you've said, it's so subtle, but she reveals so much in her expressions. I am absolutely compelled in her portrayal, one of her best.
Same with Chadwick, soulful and heartbreaking. Gone too soon.
It's a marvelous performance piece, but the filmmaking itself didn't strike me as anything special. Photographically uninteresting, and all sorts of mistimed edits that kept taking me out of it. Wilson's text resonates mightily -- a credit to him and to the cast and to Wolfe's direction of actors -- but there's very little in its cinematic form that enhanced the text for me.
I know this is a terribly cliché complaint, one I tend to avoid, but most of the time it felt more like a filmed play than a film based on a play.
Great performances by Viola and Chadwick. And a really good achievement for Ann Roth. I’m afraid of play adaptations which looked just “filmed plays”, text-wise, I think this happened with Fences more than with Ma Rainey’s. So George C. Wolfe did a better effort to make it look like Cinema.
I mostly find that the “opening up” in film versions of theatrical works tends to fall into one of two camps: employed to distract from elements that may not have worked in the text; or is simply and wholly unnecessary (“Look we’re a film now, check out our many locations”).
The best play-to-film adaptations (Streetcar, Virginia Woolf), have enough faith in the power of the source material to mostly let them build within the confines of a single location. It is the dialogue and the performances that sell the story and the filmmaker needs to trust that these are enough.
Of course, film can always enhance by employing it’s own tools (framing, editing) to increase tension, unnerve or surprise and delight. And let’s not forget the use of close-up. In this most intimate space, the trials and triumphs in the pasts of Ma and Levee have never felt more truly LIVED in their telling and the towering performances of Davis and Boseman radiate off the screen.
Wonderful review, Nathaniel. I've read somewhere that Viola's voice is not dubbed but enhanced with an additional voice in the singing most difficult parts. I don't know if it's true or not.
Anyway it's my favourite performance of her. And Boseman is simply miraculous.
Viola is really something different to everything she's done in this,her vocal work when not singing is a real gem,she dominated the film and unfortunately Boseman who was quieter and less showy,he certainly moved well.
I haven't seen Hopkins so I don't know if Boseman walks this race or not as it's not really flashy but sentiment helps,I don' think he'd be my winner so far as I have Delroy Lindo and Liam Neeson in the top 2 places.
I was disappointed wirh the directing and editing here, it is missing a sense of urgency and heat. Like what Nichols did with Who’s afraid of Virginia Wolf?.Acting is top notch as expected
August Wilson is one of those highly theatrical playwright-poets whose work could be ruined by attempts to "open it up." Although I'd be very curious to see an adaptation from an idiosyncratic/visionary filmmaker like Spike Lee, Charles Burnett, Steve McQueen or Melina Matsoukas. I think Wolfe does an admirable job with Ma Rainey, although I wish Levee's first big monologue was a little more cinematically handled (as well acted as it is).
This was really great. Visually, there were moments when it could have been stronger, but overall I think Wolfe made the right choice to focus on the actors. He does a nice job, in particular, of following and moving the characters during monologues to almost suggest they’re musical numbers. And out of these actors mouths, Boseman in particular, they are. He also does a nice job using the movement of the camera to juxtapose Ma and Lever.
The costumes are great, but this is an acting and writing showcase. I was stunned by Viola - she becomes Ma and you feel her pain and her moments of hot. Whenever we’re with her she does the hard task of grounding Ma in reality while also helping us see her perspective. Wilson provides several moments for her to do this, but I think she also does it in the moments when she isn’t centered as well.
Boseman is great. I’ll simply say that I always saw him as a movie star - someone who could effortlessly carry a film and was magnetic, but not someone who get into a character as deeply as others. Here he dispels that notion - he Levee. He plays the role - 10 years his junior - with youthful ablomb and he makes your heart ache for him as much as you want to see him pay respect to his elders.
Colman Domingo really impressed me and I hope he gets an Oscar nod.
Viola and Chadwick should win easily. This is one of the great films of the year with great performances!
@Joe G
I was stunned by Viola as well. She shines in her quieter moments, especially when she's with Dussie Mae and her nephew. She disappears in the role. She knows when to get big and go diva, but she excels in her quiet, searing expressions.
I didn't like it. I don't respond to August Wilson work.
Viola surely can't do playback but she's so good with the rest. To the people saying she's supporting on Twitter, wash you hands and wear a mask.
The editing is atrocious.
I loved this. That opening scene is so stunning for the exact reasons mentioned in the review, the way it upends expectations of what that imagery usually signifies felt almost defiant to me. I thought it was a brilliant choice. There are some moments where I think the editing falls short, mainly during the scenes of them recording the songs where the words don't always match up with what the characters are saying.
I had trepidation about seeing Viola in this role, despite her being born in the South, I don't usually associate her with the type of Southern woman Ma Rainey was. I've already seen some folks bristling at the fact that she had to gain weight and wear a fat-suit for the role when there are other Black women with that body type who could have inhabited it more naturally (might there be a backlash brewing?), but I have to say she relieved me of my skepticism almost immediately. The lip-synching may not be great, but this was a tremendous performance in so many other ways. Her physicality as Ma is so striking in the way it communicates her unapologetic sensuality and brashness, but also her weariness. Viola is always great, but seeing her get to do something so outside of what we know from her was a major delight.
If Chadwick Boseman wins Best Actor it'll easily be one of my favorite wins in the history of the category. All of the performances are great, actually, and I hope the work of Glynn Turman and Colman Domingo get some attention too.
I thought MRBB was atrociously directed. The editing was especially bizarre what with the inexplicable cuts to character reactions during Levee’s monologues. For me at least, Wolfe’s methods really dulled the impact of Levee recounting the tragic rape of his mother; it seemed cheaply rushed backstory and almost comically out of place.
It almost felt like a daytime television period piece.
I found Viola’s vocal work while speaking to be strong, but I didn’t find it to align with the singing well at all. Viola, another vocalist, or a blending of the two didn’t come close to capturing the charm and uniqueness of the real Ma Rainey.
The stuttering nephew deserves a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor, and I would believe it if he turned out to actually be Viola’s nephew as distractingly bad as I found him to be.
I expect virtually no one to call attention to it, but the portrayal of the manager and engineer were certainly more than a little anti-Semitic.
The soulless, neutering of Levee’s composition at the end was effective enough but hard to feel too bad about as Levee is a murderer who deserves to go to prison for life.
FENCES is a superior work in virtually every aspect. Denzel should’ve directed.
Was well executed,,,as good as Viola was, she was almost a bit player to the boys in the band,,,Bozeman was stellar,,,an Oscar nod is a must,,,,,,Turman was very very good and should be recognized for supporting,,,
Direction was tight ,,compelling,,,was totally moved by this film,,,a masterpiece work
Chadwick Boseman! He's gonna win everything in sight. Sorry, Anthony Hopkins.
Viola Davis, on the other hand, barely registered. It was all artifice. Oh well.
I'd also like to mention how brilliant Glynn Turman was here.
George C. Wolfe should be more in the conversation for Best Director.
See this film immediately!
Tedious. Another Broadway play with people yelling at each other constantly. I put it on the level of August Osage County. Viola Davis was miscast. She is too contemporary and smooth. And, really, someone gets murdered for stepping on another guy's shoe. Stagey. No real action. Just too much arguing. Filmed Broadway plays generally are not that good.
I didn't like it because it felt more like a filmed play than a cinematic output down to the monologues and music reverb. Maybe I'm in the minority but I thought Viola's performance was showy and overdone.
Count me in the camp of the movie being really a filmed play. Viola was outstanding (the trailer was deceiving in this aspect) with second best being Glynn Turman. I found the editing and cinematography lacking. And as someone mentioned, long monologues do not translate well from theater to cinema (show, don’t tell).
Also, when Viola is introduced I only saw Queen Latifah in Chicago.
This article oozes white guilt.
This film was excellent. Stay pressed, racist haters.
I'm honestly surprised at people thinking Viola was "too big". Everything that was larger-than-life about the character felt grounded at the same time to me. Ma is a force of nature and Viola embodied it beautifully. Oh well.
It looks beautiful and it's well-done--Chadwick deserves his awards--but I do feel like it felt very much like a play turned into a movie.
I wish another actress could've gotten the opportunity to play Ma...this character felt like a shoe that didn't quite fit Viola's foot. Of course she's a fantastic actress and I won't begrudge her her second Best Actress nod, but I felt like it was very showboat-y and I could almost always see the cogs turning in her head during this performance when she's usually a bit more lived-in.
It makes me wonder who could've gotten that role and knocked it out of the park...hmm.
Not a fan. Who are the white dudes at the end?
So glad I'm an European not having to pretend that this is an important play and author.
LOL. you know it's awards season time when people start getting so arbitrary and pissy in the comments and are projecting left and right regardless of what movie or article is being discussed
@ Philip H: Mo'Nique. She actually played Ma Rainey beautifully in HBO's "Bessie" a couple years ago and was Emmy-nominated for the performance. If she hadn't burned all of her career bridges, I can only imagine what Mo could have done here, if she wanted to play the role again in a different context. There the main focus was of course Queen Latifah's Bessie, but that mentor/mentee relationship was both interesting and contentious. Whoopi also played her on Broadway to rave reviews.
Saw the film over the weekend and loved it. It brought tears to my eyes seeing Chadwick radiate like this and knowing it's his final performance. I think he's gonna sail through to the Oscar win, but it's a long time to April, so I'll try to contain myself. Davis was fine and delivered in key moments, but I left this not thinking much about her at all. She's the main focus, and yet she's not. Borderline supporting in my book. I also have to mention Colman Domingo and Glynn Turman, who I thought were excellent! Both would make FAR worthier supporting actor nominees than anyone from "Trial of the Chicago 7" or "Mank," just sayin'.
@ Nathaniel
Yup, it’s that time again. ::biting my tongue this time::
This is going to be one of those films that I clearly just don't get ... Thought Chadwick was sensational and genuinely captivating, Viola was fine but nothing I'd rave about... and the film itself was simply nothing remarkable or noteworthy to me. Am shocked at the praise its getting... went in wanting to love it, left feeling completely underwhelmed...
Really enjoyed it. Boseman was incredible. It's his movie.
while it is a very good film, it has a huge flaw: it never shakes off the sensation of filmed stage play, and never dare to explore for real, the possibilities of cinematic language. Think for example, on how Frank Oz's Little Shop of Horror reinvented the Dentist musical number, or any of the choreographys from Chicago - specially They Both Reached for the gun - or even 12 Angry Men or His Girl Friday or The Front Page... At this point I think this is taking only Lead Actor and will miss a Director nom.
Kudos to the cast, but I found it to be a boring adaptation, despite being only 90 minutes. And I thought Viola was miscast. She was not believable as Ma Rainey from 1927, either in shape or voice, and did not do well lip synching.
Wowee, the knives are out in this comments section, I see. :-\ Merry...Festivus and the airing of grievances?
I enjoyed this, though not quite as much as Nathaniel. I thought Davis, Boseman, and Coleman were all terrific...but add me to team "filmed play." I do respond to August Wilson's work when I see it performed live, but as with Fences, I just think his plays are difficult to transfer to screen - while the acting pops and some of the writing, nothing else really does. As I told my husband, I would have paid good money to see this exact production with this exact cast *on stage*. As it is, since it's going to be a long while before I can see another August Wilson play on stage, I'll gladly take this. But it's a little sad to me that it is going to be eligible for Oscars while Steve McQueen's Small Axe series, despite being so much more cinematic, isn't.
Lynn Lee -- Hear, hear!
true story. my take on it wasn't quite this positive but i watched it again right before writing this. sometimees a second viewing and the process of writing about something can reveal more to you about your own feelings about it than the initial reaction.
Hopkins is better, but Bosewick will win and Viola too. Black women winning Actress only when accompanied by a brotha will be a thing written about for a couple of years until it's broken.
My husband and I made it 41 minutes of this before giving up. It is a completely stagey movie. Not a single line of dialogue feels lived in or real other than those delivered by Turman and Domingo. Dialogue can be arch and still delivered with power. I am a giant fan of Shakespeare, whose dialogue was certainly not naturalistic. But if delivered with conviction, it can transcend.
Perhaps the last 50 minutes of the film got better, but it's a complete slog of a movie. It wasn't worth it to find out if it magically became a good movie in its second half. Too bad as I was really rooting for it, especially for Boseman and the great Viola Davis.
You clearly know nothing about August Wilson or the power of his language. The second half of the film that's so lazily skipped contains the most memorable elements. Stay basic.
I thought the point of having all of the August Wilson films turned into movies was to see how they translate/ interpret to a new medium/art form. I thought Fences was probably more successful and I guess I never got over how it felt like a filmed play?
Overall I thought he movie was great but not as groundbreaking as everyone else?
Chadwick is great and deserves the win. Think the supporting cast is great.
I love Viola and, of course, she is terrific. She deserves the nomination as well. I would have her as supporting but can see the argument for lead.
I guess the fat suit did not not bother me. What bothered me the most was the dubbing so not really a full transformation ( at least to me). I just kept thinking- there was no one else available on Broadway or Hollywood that could actually sing and physically fit this part?
I saw the trailer and I have zero interest in watching this- it kind of feels like we have seen this already in another shape or form. Its very sad to see Chadwick Bozeman but he will probably get an Oscar nomination for this.
Didn't work for me. I felt the same way about "Fences" -- both films felt like they're primarily about the way toxic masculinity destroys the world (and the men themselves), not a theme I care about (we gays have to deal with it every day of our lives, and I'm happy to avoid it in film). I just found the movie very depressing. I thought Viola and Chadwick were terrific -- I wish the film they were in was better (I agree with the comments above about the filming and the editing). I found VIola's makeup distracting, i.e. they made her look like a clown. It was only an hour and a half, but felt like twice as long.
@ Jöns Completely agree with your comment "glad I'm an European not having to pretend that this is an important play and author".
BORING :(
It`s not really a movie. It`s filmed play. Acting is good (Boseman is very good) but it would be more interesting if it really was about Ma Rainey and why on earth Viola Davis is playing her is beyond m e. It`s Netflix movie so it doesn`t need star power that much so why not hire an actress who would better fit the role ? Viola doesn`t sing, she had to wear prosthetics or whatever to make her bigger. Sure she`s good actress, but this role screamed LORETTA DEVINE to me.
Manos & Jons -- it's okay to not like any movie but why be proud of not liking the complete works of an important playwright? Marvelous writer.
everyone -- i hope everyone saying "it's a filmed play" aren't the same people arguing that a taped recording of Hamilton should be Oscar eligible ;)
to Nathaniel. I didn`t argue about Hamilton should be eligible for Oscars. I think Emmys has a special category for it. Oh, i forgot about one thing - Viola Davis is not lead in it. When she`s lead (Fences) she goes supporting, when she`s supporting she campaign for lead. She does The Help, has a big hit, owes to this movie her career really then she shits on it. And i remember when she was doing her campaign for The Help she was saying that she tried to option the book and produce it. Viola doesn`t have much integrity which makes her perfect for a movie star or a politician. But luckily she`s still good actress. And since she wants to be `sexualized`, i will say that she also has very good body. Greetings!
Okay...Okay...First let me say this, in my humble opinion plays don't translate well on film. They were written for the stage and I feel like the art form is disturbed when you adapt it for the big screen. It's even worse with musicals I find it disgustingly cheesy for people on screen to just break out in song and dance out of nowhere. Can someone just push fast forward and just get us out of this, whatever you want to call it. I feel like I'm being tortured!
It's hard for me to even judge this because I read the play first. So, I'm going to just say STOP IT already, no more plays on screen. Write new screenplays! What's written for the stage should stay on the stage! What the hell happened to creativity?
داکت اسپلیت
چیلر
فن کویل
پرده هوا دستگاهی است که برای جلوگیری از جابجایی هوا یا آلایندهها از یک فضای باز به فضای دیگر بکار میرود.دستگاه پرده هوا در واقع وسیله ای مشابه اسپلیت های کولرگازی است، که معمولا در بالای درب ورودی نصب می شود و سیستم فوق متشکل از یک فن قوی در سقف و یک مکنده قدرتمند در کف می باشد که از این طریق، پس از باز شدن درب ورودی، بهطور مداوم جریان هوای فشرده از بالای درب به صورت مستقیم به پایین دمیده می شود.لازم به ذکر است که پرده هوا به دو صورت افقی و عمودی قابل نصب و اجرا بوده که نوع افقی آن رایج تر است.