Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020 US) Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman star in this biopic of the mother of Blues, Ma Rainey. As I said in the intro blurb for this month my history professor characterized America as a cross between European, African and Native culture, then later Latin American. One of our biggest exports is culture and African Americans were and continue to be an enormous part of that. I watched Eurovision this year and the winning Ukrainian team performed their song from last year, their hip-hop song. They did good but when it was over they started speaking Ukrainian. That was really weird for me but I can see where that comes from. So these films that feature the origins of certain aspects of our culture are huge. This one is extra special. It is Boseman’s last film for which he won some posthumous awards. I am still sad about his passing. He was 40 something in this but came across like he was 19. I didn’t know that Ma Rainey was Davis until I looked it up. The two were just so into their characters. I really enjoyed this one but it is a bit different. It’s based on the play of the same name and runs like a stage play. For example normally an adaptation from a play shows elements that they couldn’t show on a live stage. A car accident or a long monologue describing a tense situation. They didn’t do that here and left the monologues in and just talked about the car accident. It really puts a spotlight on the actors and they did not disappoint. Find it on Netflix
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