December 23, 2020
When the Gazette was down in Columbus, GA a couple of years ago we tried to visit Ma Rainey‘s home on several occasions. Unfortunately, it was always closed every time we dropped by so we never did get to see the interior. Then, this week, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom premiered on Netflix – and we still didn’t get to see the inside! Production notes indicate the film was shot in Pittsburgh although the story is set in Chicago.
Chadwick Boseman
The movie is based on August Wilson‘s 1985 Tony Award nominated Broadway play of the same name. Viola Davis and Denzel Washington starred in Wilson’s Fences on Broadway back in 2010 and each won a Tony for their powerful performances. Washington is this film’s Producer and Davis stars in the title role. Also appearing is the late, great Chadwick Boseman. If you’ve only ever seen him in Black Panther, as we had, this was an unexpectedly amazing performance. Obviously, there’s a world of difference between playing a role based on a comic book hero and one created by a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright, but seeing that range in an actor is still pretty incredible. It reminds us that he’s gone too soon but also that he had this great performance in him. We’re happy for any artist that’s able to put it out there while they still walk among us.
And for her part, we imagine Ma Rainey would have approved of the character Wilson and Davis created here. Strong, talented, and nobody’s fool, Rainey sticks to her guns when agents and record producers try to tell her what she ought to do. She understood, in the story’s telling, that she had what they wanted and what they needed and she was not about to ever let them forget it. For a Black American female artist nearly a century ago to be a shot caller in a business renowned for screwing people over is nothing less than amazing. That she really did do it her way decades before Sinatra made doing that a thing is pretty darn cool.
The verdict: see this, it’s a very good movie.
