Review: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, directed by George C. Wolfe, tells the tale of the legendary blues singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis). One hot summer afternoon, Ma travels to Chicago to record some of her best hits, but gets into some conflict with her white manager on how to perform them. Meanwhile Ma’s trumpeter Levee (Chadwick Boseman) also stirs up some conflict with the singer as he dreams of making it big with his own band.

This is the second play from playwright August Wilson to be adapted into film, the first being 2016’s Fences. It also happens to be Chadwick Boseman’s final film as an actor after tragically passing away earlier this year from cancer. A lot of hype is buzzing around this film from Netflix and after checking it out it honestly didn’t do much for me. Much like Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is more a showcase for acting than anything else.

The film really only has two things going for it, and they are Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. Once again, Viola Davis is phenomenal as she portrays Ma Rainey with all the respect she demands. Davis’s performance is just dripping with charisma and effectively takes command of every scene she’s in. Boseman also gives a commendable final performance that we’ll no doubt be hearing more about once awards season kicks up. Between the two Davis clearly gives the better performance but Boseman still really manages to showcase his talent as an actor here, and it’s incredibly heart-breaking that we won’t be able to continue to see him develop his craft any further.

But outside of the two leads, nothing else stood out for me. The rest of the cast does okay, with one or two of them really sticking out like a sore thumb. The film’s direction and cinematography were all just serviceable, the editing was kind of annoying at times, the filmmakers really didn’t use everything available to them to make a cinematic adaptation of Wilson’s play. They basically did the bare minimum and nothing more.

Overall despite Davis and Boseman’s best efforts this is just another awards bait film. It’s just an excuse for actors to act and nothing more. They didn’t do anything creative with the play; they just stuck a camera in front of these actors and pressed record. I would say it is worth checking out if and only if you are curious to see Boseman’s final performance, otherwise there’s not much else to take away from this film. It’s painfully mediocre and it’s something I won’t remember long after.

Final Verdict: 5/10