Viola Davis is back with another brilliant film adaptation of the play ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’, titled the same. This will be Davis’ second play adaptation, made by the brilliant playwright August Wilson, which she will be a part of; the previous one being ‘Fences’, where she starred opposite Denzel Washington, which won her an Academy Award.
Netflix has taken over the reigns of this film and by the looks of the trailer, we won’t be surprised if Davis gets another Oscar nod, or probably even a Grammy for her singing chops. This film could provide an Academy Award nomination posthumously for Chadwick Boseman. The actor was electrifying in the trailer and the ‘Black Panther’ actor seems to have nailed it. The late actor worked through several hours of treatment, chemotherapy and surgery to give his one-screen persona an intoxicating presence.
Starting at the beginning of a recording, with Ma Rainey (portrayed by Viola Davis) and the band getting ready to play in a recording studio, the trailer sets the tone immediately. A look at 1920s America, where “the blues” seems to be the only relief African-Americans get during those trying times, Ma Rainey performs for her audience, live, in tents, trying to provide an escape from the emptiness people feel in their lives.
We are looking at the twilight of Ma Rainey’s career, where she has already been dubbed “The Mother of The Blues”. She and her band have a good gig going on, but one of the young talents, Levee – the Coronet player (portrayed by the late Chadwick Boseman), has other plans. He doesn’t believe in Ma Rainey’s methods of music anymore and wants to strike out on his own. The two come at odds, which breaks the recording up and it threatens to splinter the band.
One young musician trying to climb up in his career during the decline of an older artist is no new theme, but with it set in the backdrop of the late 20s Chicago and the main characters being from the coloured community, the racism and discrimination adds a new layer of complication. Chadwick and Viola are brilliant when they are pitted against each other and they both brought their A-game (as far as we can see in the trailer) for this film.
Directed by George C. Wolfe, written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson and produced by Todd Black, Denzel Washington and Dany Wolf, the team behind the camera is just as star-studded as the team in front of it. The Netflix feature will also star Colman Domingo, Glynn Turman, Michael Potts, Taylour Paige, Dusan Brown, Jonny Coyne and Jeremy Shamos in prominent roles.
‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ will premiere on Netflix on December 18th 2020. Watch the trailer for the film down below:
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