Jason’s Review of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 2020 ★★★★★

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom 2020 ★★★★★

Watched Jan 05, 2021

A gripping and powerful adaptation of August Wilson’s stage play, the second of three planned Wilson adaptations put into motion by Denzel Washington (the first being 2016’s FENCES). Viola Davis is outstanding and highly entertaining as the staunch 1920s blues singer Ma Rainey, but it’s Chadwick Boseman (in his final performance) who owns the film, as the story’s most tragic and complex character, the ambitious but haunted trumpet player and composer, Levee. One of the year’s best.