OVP: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)

Film: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)

Stars: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo

Director: George C. Wolfe

Oscar History: 5 nominations/2 wins (Best Actor-Chadwick Boseman, Actress-Viola Davis, Costume*, Production Design, Makeup & Hairstyling*)

Snap Judgment Ranking: 3/5 stars

August Wilson is one of the towering figures of the American stage, a brilliant playwright who only four years ago (posthumously) was able to translate one of his titanic works to the screen, with 2016's Fences.  Denzel Washington has stated he intends to produce every one of Wilson's ten "Pittsburgh Cycle" films to the screen in the coming years, with Ma Rainey being the second one.  With Fences, I felt it was a gorgeous screenplay, but one that didn't translate properly to the movies, frequently feeling like a screened play rather than one that was authentic to the cinema itself, and in the process parts of it felt too loud & lost (even with solid actors & writing).  Ma Rainey adds new complications to this problem by occasionally feeling like it's letting the air out of the story's claustrophobia, even if (once again) the writing is of another realm.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie takes place in Chicago in the 1920's.  Ma Rainey (Davis) is the "Mother of the Blues," the biggest African-American music act in the country, and she knows that she has this little perch of power even if she is unable to enjoy the same luxuries & treatment a white woman in her position would achieve.  The film alternates between Ma's moments of reflection & "star" behavior, and counters it with her band, principally her trumpet player Levee (Boseman), who has a new musical style & wants to find his own voice & success, rather than staying in Ma's shadow.  As the film wears on, the two characters are given more backstory to the audience, with Ma showing the struggles she has with the white men in her life, knowing she's only worth anything to them because of her voice (and the money that it brings), while Levee cannot escape the trauma of his childhood (when white men gang-raped his mother).  The other bandmates watch as Ma, who has survived & will continue to be the exception, gets to continue her success even though it's one that isn't commensurate to the money & success it affords her label, but knowing that Levee will meet his doom with his youthful impetuousness.  In the film's closing moments, Levee is fired by Ma, and it turns out that the songs that he was going to record for the label, the ones he'd been promised to record, will be sold for a mere pittance to the label instead.  In a blind rage, after one of the other bandmates accidentally scuffs the shoes Levee bought in the opening scene (and can no longer afford), he kills him, the violence of his childhood continuing on into his adulthood, finally consuming his hope & promise.

The movie has a heavy conversation about the value of black artistry & its exploitation by white capitalists, a conversation that has never really been settled, and one that sadly even in 2020 is worth having.  The movie's juxtaposition of Ma, who is the rare black woman of the era who can demand more (but knows that she can't demand what she's truly worth) with Levee (whose talent is apparent in the end when his song is recorded lifelessly by an all-white orchestra, depriving him of his chance at Ma's success) is heartbreaking.  Wilson shows the ways that for centuries black talent has been stolen with little profit to the creators, and frequently the artists who created it were barely given credit, much less its monetary value, for their workm.  Wilson's rapid-fire dialogue & insightful speeches create a well-rounded story, one that deserved to be committed to the screen.

But the film struggles once again to find its footing within the confines of the screen.  I know some enjoy the concept of a filmed play (there are times this is successful onscreen), but Ma Rainey can't find a balancing act here.  The play appears to take place entirely in the recording studio, giving a heightened tension that would work so well on the stage, and I suspect would've been a better choice for the film (the scenes shot outside almost never work as well).  This expansion gives the viewer too much exposition toward Ma's character, a problem that feels necessary because while Davis is good in this part, she doesn't bring enough backstory to her Ma.  Ma feels like she's meant to have some enigma at first, this sort of unicorn siren who is able to defy the world around her despite her race & sexuality being at odds with the moneyed culture she's surrounded by, but as the movie moves on we need to gain an understanding of Ma, and it doesn't quite click for me as Davis goes.  It doesn't help that Davis doesn't sing the part, and her lip syncing feels hollow during the moments where we need to understand Ma the most.  She's too good of an actress to totally miss this, but the connection to Ma just isn't there the way it's supposed to be.

Or perhaps Viola Davis just gets upstaged, as Chadwick Boseman (despite the title) ensures that he is the star of this production.  The late Boseman has some of the same problems that come to Davis (his monologues feel like they're pitched to a giant live audience rather than someone sitting on their couch...this movie definitely misses in moving out of theaters), but he lands some of his biggest moments.  The final scenes, where Levee understands that the vengeance he's idolized for his father, and told in his head was worth it, was in fact just the same white men who he sought revenge on stealing his father's future the way they did his mother, that this vengeance was just another robbery of his childhood & a cycle he can't escape...it's gut-wrenching stuff.  It's impossible to escape the real-life fact that this will be Boseman's swan song after his shocking death from cancer earlier this year, and this informs some of his monologues about death & "the future" in ways that feel so cruel as we understand what Levee's fate will be, his artistry never getting the chance to fully blossom.  I get the reason to add on an additional scene (with the white men singing in a chorus of Levee's song, showing that the profiting still continues), but it feels like a cheap way to take away from the best parts of Boseman's work, and give the audience some reprieve from the harrowing robbery of one man's spirit that has taken place under their noses for 90 minutes prior.