Viola Davis
The musical drama Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, based on the play by August Wilson, has received near universal acclaim from critics. The film recounts the tensions mounting during the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a blues band awaits the singer Ma Rainey, who arrives late and engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. The cast includes Viola Davis (Ma Rainey, sung by Maxayn Lewis), Chadwick Boseman (Levee), Glynn Turman (Toledo), Colman Domingo (Cutler), Michael Potts (Slow Drag), Taylour Paige (Dussie Mae), Dusan Brown (Sylvester), Jonny Coyne (Sturdyvant), and Jeremy Shamos (Irvin).
The creative team includes Denzel Washington, Todd Black, and Dany Wolf (producers), George C. Wolfe (direction), Ruben Santiago-Hudson (screenplay), Branford Marsalis (music), Tobias A. Schliessler (cinematography), Andrew Mondshein (editing), Mark Ricker (production design), Karen O’Hara and Diana Stoughton (set decoration), and Ann Roth (costumes). The film will begin streaming December 18 on Netflix.
BBC (Caryn James): Ma Rainey may be the film’s title character, but Levee is its focus as he grapples with the past. Boseman soars in the role. … Wolfe finds the right balance between letting Wilson’s trademark monologues flow and shooting them in a cinematic way that keeps the film moving. … Branford Marsalis’s soundtrack blends seamlessly with Ma’s own songs. But Wilson’s words are always the point. Boseman does justice to those words and more. … Wilson’s work is in the best of hands. 5 out of 5 stars.
CNN (Brian Lowry): Davis and Boseman deliver powerful performances. … His flashy, fast-talking role here — using music as a means of seduction — demonstrates his extraordinary range. … Davis, for her part, sinks her teeth into another larger-than-life character as only she can. … At just over 90 minutes, Ma Rainey — like any savvy performer — doesn’t overstay its welcome, or risk stretching the premise beyond its weight. Thanks to its leads, rather, it belts out a few showstopping moments, before taking that last, well-deserved curtain call.
New York Post (Johnny Oleksinkski): Ma Rainey is not boring behind-the-music drivel. … Wilson’s plays are tricky to put on-screen [but] George C. Wolfe gets around that barrier by snaking his camera through the actors — almost like a dance. The shots rarely stay put and have real showbiz energy. … But it’s the brilliant Boseman who stays with you in the end. The late actor will surely be nominated for an Oscar. 3-1/2 out of 4 stars.
Slate (Karen Han): In Ma Rainey’s best moments, Davis and Boseman burn away any sense of the film’s theatrical origins. … Davis and Boseman are at the top of their game throughout. And it’s a fitting, heartbreaking swan song for Boseman, who, with Levee, makes his most notable break from the icons he’d played before, demonstrating that he was capable of even more than we knew—that he was just getting started.
Time Out (Kambole Campbell): Despite the title, Chadwick Boseman’s character, the ambitious horn player Levee, is the axis around which the film revolves. The role is a perfect showcase of the late actor’s potential for provocative volatility. … Ma Rainey is a good enough watch when it’s simply zooming in on seriously gifted actors selling these anecdotes for all they’re worth — and all with a classic blues soundtrack to power it along. 3 out of 5 stars.