Directed by : George C. Wolfe

You don't sing to feel better. You sing because that's a way of understanding life. 



Adaptation of an August Wilson play, with the story revolving around the legendary singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) known as 'Mother of the Blues' and her band of musicians including a very ambitious horn player, Levee (Chadwick Boseman)  as they assemble for a recording session one afternoon, set in 1920's Chicago. 

Very much get the feel of watching a play, with most of the settings limited to a room and many monologues. The constant banter among the musicians in the band, each telling a dark tale they were part of or knew about. Levee's childhood story version monologue specially makes you feel sorry for him and just maybe side with him after feeling he is on a very tightrope way he would be behaving like he would be a big thing one day and not respecting others. 

Ma Rainey is another complex character, at first you feel she is showing the shades of a famous singer, until you learn the reason behind it, with her wanting to make sure the whites never end up ruling how she can behave. That makes for some interesting scenes involving Ma and the white management that wants the recording done badly. 

A very dialogue heavy movie that does lot of character study on almost all the musicians in the band, and then how it leads to a very dark hard-hitting ending which you can see coming amidst the rising tension during all the never ending banter. It does felt little monotonous at times and lengthy despite been just 1h30mins in duration. Though, at same time I won't deny I was very much engaged in most of the banter that was going on, or the moments when Ma would dominate over the white management. Also, there's the racism and prejudices that comes with it since its set in an very old era. 

Maybe little more story about Ma before they shifted to this recording session could had added that something extra that I felt was missing in the movie. 


Viola Davis as expected shines, despite her not having that much dialogues to begin with, her conversation about what music is to her and the coca-cola scene were my favs. Sadly, its the last movie of Chadwick Boseman, and how good he is in this, specially the scene where he narrates what happened when he was 8 yr old, or his enthusiasm after having bought new shoes. 

Among the rest band, Cutler (Colman Domingo), Toledo (Glynn Turman) and Slow Drag (Michael Potts), each were fun to watch, whether its their reactions to how foolish Levee would often sound or their own dark secrets they share with time.

'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' is a good watch for all the performances, bit restrictive on the plot nevertheless I still felt fully invested barring some places. And always good to know about some history I ain't aware of, though many may remember this movie for Chadwick Boseman, being his last one and he does deliver too. 

My Rating : 6.5/10