Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

A recording studio in Chicago in 1927. The blues singer Ma Rainey has come to make a record, but first there is the heat, then the Coca-Cola, then the question of her nephew's voice. Downstairs, the trumpeter Levee is dreaming about starting his own band. It is adapted from August Wilson's 1982 play, with a screenplay by Ruben Santiago-Hudson. The project behind it is larger. Denzel Washington had a deal with HBO to film nine of Wilson's plays; by June 2019 that deal had moved to Netflix. It is Chadwick Boseman's last film. He died in August 2020 during post-production and the film is dedicated to him. Levee was widely called the best work of his career, and he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor posthumously and was nominated for an Oscar. Viola Davis plays Ma Rainey under heavy makeup and prosthetics and was nominated for Best Actress. Most of Rainey's singing is not Davis but Maxayn Lewis. It took five Academy Award nominations and won two, for costume design and for makeup and hairstyling. Who it is for: viewers who love acting and texts that come from theatre. Who it is not for: anyone wanting cinema. The film barely breaks the stage structure and never leaves two rooms.