'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom': Film Review

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which bows on Netflix on Dec. 18, features Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis as the legendary blues singer and Chadwick Boseman in his final on-screen performance.“Ma was really successful and super famous, and preceded Bessie Smith,” says composer Branford Marsalis, who delivered the film’s score and music.

As the title suggests, the documentary “Queer Japan” is big and broad, not focused.

Ahead of its release, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” director George C. Wolfe is opening up about working with Chadwick Boseman in his final role.

Chadwick Boseman. In an interview with , the Ma Rainey's Black Bottom director recalls Boseman reacting to an emotional scene after the cameras stopped rolling.

straight to your inboxManchester City players took it upon themselves to motivate each other before the Premier League win over Fulham that took them back into Premier League top four for the first time this season.City recorded back to back league wins for the first time in 2020/21 with a comfortable 2-0 win over strugglers Fulham, with both goals scored in the opening 25 minutes.

Also Read: 17 Top-Grossing Broadway Musicals of All Time, From 'Hamilton' to 'The Lion King' (Photos)Together, they decide to rehabilitate their image as self-absorbed narcissists by taking on a cause — or as Dee Dee puts it, “some little injustice we can drive to”: a teenage lesbian named Emma (Jo Ellen Pellman) who’s been barred from the prom at her Indiana high school thanks to the rantings of a bigot who leads the local PTA (played by Kerry Washington, in a thankless, one-note role).The

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticStuck inside on Black Friday, stuffed with turkey (or else deprived of that feast for the first time in ages, out of an abundance of caution), what are Americans supposed to do to distract themselves? All year, it’s been a battle of the streamers to fill the void left by cinemas, and this week finds nearly all the big brands are stepping up with big titles to serve the stay-at-home set.Netflix debuts Oscar contender “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” in theaters this week

Also Read: See Johnny Flynn as David Bowie in First Look at Unauthorized Biopic 'Stardust'For better and for worse, “Stardust” grapples with those issues as it follows a 24-year-old Bowie on a promotional tour through the United States in 1971, accompanied by a long-suffering Mercury Records publicist named Ron Oberman.Johnny Flynn plays Bowie, Marc Maron plays Oberman, and the point of director and cowriter Gabriel Range’s film is to trace the seeds of Bowie’s breakthrough character, Ziggy

The sixth time around the paddock is decidedly not the charm for the latest live-action feature incarnation of Black Beauty, based on the enduring Anna Sewell-penned equine adventure.

Jessica Kiang War is blood and bombs and politics, but not in Alina Gorlova’s fascinating, fraught documentary “This Rain Will Never Stop.” Elliptically following 20-year-old Andriy Suleiman, a student Red Cross worker who “left one war for another” when his family fled Hasukah, Syria for his mother’s hometown of Lysychansk, Ukraine, this defiantly oblique, uncannily composed film instead reduces actual conflict to a dully thunderous, far-off roar.

It's my deep, dark secret (one I'm happy to admit to anybody) that I don't hate Gus Van Sant's Psycho. Sure, I'd watch the Hitchcock original 100 more times before wanting to revisit Vince Vaughn's take on Norman Bates, yet the much reviled shot-for-shot remake still interests me as a bizarre art project.

died in August from colon cancer at age 43.In the very good “Ma Rainey,” the actor plays Levee, a hotshot 32-year-old trumpet player for the title character, the legendary Mother of the Blues, in the 1920s.

As one of America’s most respected playwrights, most people are familiar with August Wilson’s popular play “Fences.” Viola Davis and Denzel Washington (alumni of Wilson’s theater work), starred in that film adaptation from 2018. “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” another play in Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle series, gets the adaptation treatment from director George C.

Watch Video: 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom' Trailer: Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman Sing the BluesMa’s band, who arrives at the studio well before she does, has its own internal struggles: veterans Toledo (Turman) and bandleader Cutler (Domingo) are there to follow Ma’s lead and to give her what she wants, no questions asked, while brash and talented horn player Levee (Boseman) tries to sprinkle jazz riffs into existing songs while arranging new versions of other ones over Ma’s objections.

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticIn “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” introductions matter. Whether or not audiences know the real Ma Rainey’s reputation as “mother of the blues,” August Wilson ensures that this musical pioneer is a larger-than-life character even before she steps foot onstage.

Marta Balaga George C. Wolfe’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” features the final performance of “Black Panther” star Chadwick Boseman, who died Aug.

Clayton Davis One of the most anticipated films of this awards season, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” emerges as one of the premier Oscar vehicles for Netflix. At its soulful core, the farewell performance of the late Chadwick Boseman is as invigorating as anticipated.

Once again, let’s start with the necessary context for this article. This is not a review of George C.