Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

I would have much rather seen a proper biopic of Ma Rainey than this movie version of a play where, with the exception of one chap banging on and on about his shoes, very little actually happens.

First things first. Chadwick Boseman gives a performance like nothing you've ever seen. The rest of the cast, led by the legend that is Viola Davis, is, as might be expected, tip-top, but Mr Boseman flies ever higher in every scene.

The film is based on a famous play by a great playwright who chose to write with a sense of melodrama that can still work in the theatre but somehow feels dated when transfered to the screen. The camera has to cope with the sheer size of performance necessary to capture set-piece speeches, which go against the grain of image-led cinema. Renowned Broadway director George C Wolfe gets the actors to the right temperature, but then has to find a way to make the project cinematic. The solutions here, apart from minimal opening out from the claustrophobia of the recording studio setting, are some mobile camera work and quite a bit of nimble editing. Curiously, though, these strategies simply emphasise the work's stage origins. What do work are the close-ups. They bring us closer to the characters than can ever happen on a stage. With an ensemble as fine as this one, the more close-ups the better.

So, MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, like the film of Wilson's play FENCES, is not satisfying as a movie, but as a record of a powerful play. Both well worth seeing. MA RAINEY is the greater, because of Chadwick Boseman. What an amazing actor. What a loss. What a legacy.

Probably the most deceptive trailer I've seen in years, if not ever...

The cast is great, but there's almost no music, no band performance (except for a brief moment at the very beginning), only musicians talking among themselves in a closed rehearsal room... I expected to see them on tour, playing for audiences etc... Like the trailer implies, doesn't it?

The few songs featured are great, though. So much so that it leaves you with a bitter taste of too little.

A lesson in the art of acting and film making, as an exceptional cast of extremely talented actors portray several hours in a recording studio, the tensions as taut as any wire, the crimes of the times and their effects on those involved in full view - crimes perpetuated into today, sadly.

It's a beautiful movie. The performances are amazing and mind blowing specially by Viola Davis, that gives the year's best female performance, and Chadwick Boseman. The character study is great as well. The screenplay is awesome with many interesting and powerful lines. Cinematography, music, costumes and locations are all nice too. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a very nice movie but still it feels like it's missing something.