OSCARS 2021: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)

When Chadwick Boseman died suddenly last year, it was a shock to everyone. When Boseman put on the Black Panther's cowl, he immediately went from an up-and-coming performer to an icon. Nobody had any idea that, while having an A-list career and undergoing all the tedious press junket interviews and required superhero training that go with it, that Boseman was dying of colon cancer. I don't know how he did it and I certainly don't know how he kept it a secret for so long. Boseman's unexpected death would make “Ma Rainey's Black Bottom” his final on-screen credit. Regardless of the quality of the actual movie, the film would be cemented in cinema history for this reason alone.

Based on a beloved stage play by August Wilson, the story concerns pioneering blues singer Ma Rainey and her band attempting to record songs on a blistering summer day. The process quickly becomes difficult. Rainey is late. Her car is involved in a fender bender outside. She insists her stuttering nephew introduce the recording, which takes multiple takes. The record technician tries to tell Ma what to do, which she does not appreciate. Most of the drama concerns ambitious trumpet player Leevee Green. He quarrels with the rest of the backing band. He improvises his own music, challenging Ma on how the songs should be played. More backstage drama will ensue before the day is over.

“Ma Rainey's Black Bottom” is most interesting, to me, for the way it documents the clashing egos inherent in the creative process. Ma insists that they do things her way, which is not always reasonable, and often puts her in conflict with producers and executives. (Her demands for a cold Coke Cola certainly reminds one of certain infamous rock star behavior.) Likewise, Leevee has a creative vision of his own. He's a diva too, trying to sell his own songs and improvising jazzier renditions of the songs. Naturally, two big egos in one room leads to conflict. Watching competing strong personalities bounce off each other, and try to make art through it all the while, is almost always interesting.

Of course, “Ma Rainey's Black Bottom” can't just be about the creative process, the temperamental balance of pride and talent that gets music made. Considering the time and place the story is set, the genre of music it explores, it inevitably becomes an exploration of the black experience. Sometimes, the film handles this with grace and humor. Such as when Ma and her girlfriend are harassed by cops outside the studio. Or when the attempt to find a Coke leads to one of Ma's band members walking into a store full of white guys. Other times, it devotes fifteen minutes to a monologue about white men assaulting Leevee's mother when he was a boy and the revenge his father engineered. Or an even more forced-in monologue from the piano player about making soup, which becomes a racial metaphor. It's all delivered from a place of truth but, I don't know, I feel like there's a better way. 

Once again, I find myself reviewing a movie based on a stage play. Director George C. Wolfe attempts, in some ways, to expand “Ma Rainey's Black Bottom” beyond its stage bound roots. The film opens with a cinematic montage, showing the evolution of Ma's career from the Georgia south to the clubs of Chicago. There's a number of stylized sweeps across the city or building. Certainly, Wolfe includes some lovely production designs and costumes. However, you ultimately can't get around the fact that most of this movie is composed of people in small locations talking at each other. It feels less stagy than the last Oscar-nominated August Wilson adaptation, but cannot overcomes the limitations of the material. 

Then again, maybe “Ma Rainey's Black Bottom” isn't meant to expand far past the play it's adapting. Stage work is more about the power of the performances and the poetry of the writing after all. Wolfe's film certainly has both of those attributes. Boseman gives a thunderous performance, acting to the rafters as he speaks reams of Wilson's dialogue. It's theatrical and maybe a little sweaty but undeniably powerful. Viola Davis has a similar bulldozer approach to the material, making a raised eyebrow or a forceful line of dialogue hit like a punch in the gut. There's certainly something to be admire in acting that is this muscular, that sacrifices subtly for the ability to floor people instead.

So it's hard to say what my feelings on “Ma Rainey's Black Bottom” is exactly. It's stagy and ham-fisted in a lot of ways. Like in “Fences,” the main character is such an asshole that it's hard to relate to him too much. Yet... Damn, those performances. In its best moments, the movie taps into the frantic energy and conflict of a behind-the-scenes drama. Or utilizes the music at its center to provide a lively feeling. I kind of like all that stuff. It seems the film is destined to be one of those Oscar nominees remembered for the performances in it, despite some easily identified flaws. [7/10]