Ma Rainey s Black Bottom. David Lee/David Lee/NETFLIX
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Chadwick Boseman as Levee, Colman Domingo as Cutler, Viola Davis as Ma Rainey, Michael Potts as Slow Drag and Glynn Turman as Toledo in
Ma Rainey s Black Bottom. David Lee/David Lee/NETFLIX
Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) wants her Coca-Cola, or she s not gonna sing. Never mind that this recording session during the sweltering Chicago summer of 1927 is already running behind because she and her mini-entourage arrived to the studio an hour late. No matter that tensions are already simmering among her four-piece band, and that her manager and music producer are at their wits end trying to cut this blues record.
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How strange and wonderful it is to notice that even though Viola Davis true face is hidden under a layered cake of makeup and gleam in Netflix s Ma Rainey s Black Bottom, her co-star Chadwick Boseman is equally unrecognizable at first. In the late actor s final performance for the screen – he succumbed to cancer last summer at the age of 43 – everything we have come to associate with him disappears inside Levee, a gifted trumpeter demanding recognition in a world that would have him scrape for leftovers.
Levee is ravenous for fame, but every stage he shares with Ma Rainey is by her grace; every recording session is an extension of her queendom. Levee and the rest of the band are there to back her up, although she might say their job is to stay out of her way. Davis Ma is a hurricane commanding the center of attention. She takes up space and makes demands, the very definition of what lesser men would call difficult.
Directed by George C. Wolfe.
Starring Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Jeremy Shamos, Taylour Paige, Jonny Coyne, Michael Potts, and Dusan Brown.
SYNOPSIS:
It is 1927 and tensions are running high between Blues singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) and Levee her ambitiously outspoken trumpet player (Chadwick Boseman). As the recording session continues and her management team attempt to intercede things go from bad to worse.
This second entry in the August Wilson Century Cycle adaptations might be jam packed with performances, brimming over with jazz band pizazz and more vibrant than a nineteen twenties flapper convention, but victory remains bittersweet. It will forever be remembered as the last performance of Chadwick Boseman, who has been placed on a pedestal and lionised by millions. His place in this ensemble piece sees that status only grow in stature, as he provides Levee with a frail heartbreak born of frustration.
Movie review: Ma Rainey dazzles until it fizzles near the end timesnews.net - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from timesnews.net Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Viola Davis in the title role in Ma Rainey s Black Bottom. (Courtesy David Lee/Netflix)
It’s clear within the first few minutes of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom that two alphas are jockeying for the spotlight: Viola Davis’ Rainey and the late Chadwick Boseman’s Levee, a cornet player in her band. The film quickly takes viewers from a tent show in Barnesville, Georgia to The Grand in Chicago where Rainey and her band are performing. As soon as there’s a pause, Levee, looking for his turn in the sun, steps into the spotlight, sparking the legendary blues singer’s anger.