DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. The actor Chadwick Boseman died of cancer in August at the age of 43, not long after he finished shooting the movie "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." Now streaming on Netflix, the movie stars Viola Davis as the famous blues singer Ma Rainey and was adapted from August Wilson's play. Our film critic Justin Chang says that Boseman's final screen performance ranks among his very best. JUSTIN CHANG, BYLINE: One reason Chadwick Boseman was such an extraordinary actor was his ability to command the screen without hogging the spotlight. His presence was so quietly magnetic that even when he played real-life heroes like Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall or fictional ones like King T'Challa in "Black Panther," he still seemed like the most self-effacing of movie stars. But Boseman could also go big, like when he took on James Brown in the musical biopic "Get On Up" and gave his most electrifying performance until now.