REVIEW: MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM

 

4/5

Bottom's Up.

94 Mins. Starring: Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman, Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo & Michael Potts. Director: George C. Wolfe. 

"I got my time coming to me." 2018. Panther power. The world got a vibranium suit absorbing jolt of energy it could sure use again right about now. Just when you thought Marvel couldn't do it again with avengance. After turning the tin can of Iron Man into box office soup, liking Hulk when he was Mark Ruffalo angry, having some hammer time with Thor and even turning the old fashioned stars and stripes of Captain America into something that felt as good as warm apple pie, they did one better. By taking us to the fictional motherland of Wakanda for the full feature debut of Chadwick Boseman's iconic, game changing and comic genre redefining 'Black Panther' after his classic cameo in the 'Civil War' of Team Rogers versus Team Stark putting up their dukes. Crossing his arms across his chest in an all inclusive 'Wonder Woman' like salute for heroes that no longer had to be white males for Hollywoodland, the man who played many a black icon in his still too short career (Hall of Fame baseball legend and home run barrier breaking, Jackie Robinson in '42', the Godfather of soul James Brown in 'Get On Up' and the courtroom and poetic justice of Thurgood 'Marshall'), had us all shouting "WAKANDA FOREVER" in salute. 2020. What a truly terrible and tragic year, we needed Chadwick. Following the death of Kobe Bryant, his daughter GiGi and their friends and their families to start this downfall of a calendar in January the world stopped and went into a quarantined lockdown at a social distance. People are still losing their livelihoods and lives and they wonder why Tom Cruise went off at his 'Mission: Impossible 7' film crew for breaking COVID-19 rules and regulations. This isn't like Christian Bale dressing down someone on the set of 'Terminator: Salvation' because of the f##### lights. But he could have put it differently. And then if that wasn't bad enough police brutality put a knee in the neck when that same force would question why a still to this day NFL blackballed Colin Kaepernick would take a knee in peaceful protest. What national anthem? What "United" States? Well the one in more than a million men union that women and children saw a movement that told us 'Black Lives Matter'. Now and forever. But what better symbol could shine a spotlight for us than the man who played T'Challa and all those legends of black excellence like himself? We needed him like a New Yorker shouting to an AWOL Springsteen after 9/11 for 'The Rising'. Then one morning months ago we saw that classic charming and compelling smile that always shone bright even in black and white. "Hey, Chadwick's posted something on Instagram" we thought. Then we read the caption...how could it be? He's gone. Like King James said you know it's the worst when, "you lose the Black Mamba and the Black Panther in the same year". Just when we needed his salute like that Mamba Mentality. Making his final scene in Spike Lee's 'Da 5 Bloods' this year that much more powerful and poignant. But just when you thought the man who bravely worked on all those Avenger movies and classic 90's like action thrillers from the Russo's ('21 Bridges') and Netflix ones ('Message From The King'), all whilst battling colon cancer had done enough. Netflix have one more final curtain for his last dance. Thank God for 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom'. Chadwick, or as the cast and crew affectionately refer to you here, Chad. "This be an empty world without you." 

Gramophone ready. "A one. A two. A you know what to do", as the great Colman Domingo of 'Selma' says. After wining Tony's and staging Oscars with his award winning 'Fences' co-star Viola Davis, executive producer and icon of black excellence Denzel Washington stage to screen adapts another amazing August Wilson play with love letter to the blues perfection. Like the studio stage attention to detail with not a clip left on the cutting room floor in single take perfection. Viola not only reuniting with Washington, but Boseman too (after she played the Godfather of souls mother in 'Get On Up'), could also reunite with Oscar as the mother of blues here. She's taught us 'How To Get Away With Murder', but there's no half steppin' or measures getting away when it comes to how the acclaimed Viola Davis acts. More than 'The Help', or even her "what about me" 'Fences' win, the 'Doubt', 'Prisoners' and 'Suicide Squad' actress who gave Steve McQueen's 'Widows' its peak, gives her every role her everything. Blood, snot and tears. And here is no different in a sweaty Chicago recording session 1927, where tensions are as high as the temperature on bending and warping wax as we drop the needle once again. Take six, as she demands the glass bodice of a Coca Cola out a brown paper bag from the corner store whilst her nephew with a stutter tries to hit the right note in time. She's sass, N.F.G. N.S.F.W brass and bravado and we f###### love it! "We'll be ready to go when Madame says we're ready to go. And that's the way it goes round here," she leans in to say, walking away. One fur and hat put on looking back whilst being looked down on at a restaurant will go next to her 'Murder' walkway GIF in her fight like a girl swagger Hall of Fame. Viola Davis is one of the greatest role models for young girls everywhere, black or white. Ma Rainey was one of the greatest blues artists of her time...or all-time. Putting on a De Niro 'Raging Bull' weight to play and then impressively Instagram shedding it with a personal trainer in what seems like weeks, Davis gives her all to a woman who sang and spat fire through silver grilled teeth rappers in the early 2000's would kill or pay Paul Wall for. All the way until she sees Oscar gold we're sure. "I try to take that emptiness and fill it up with SOMETHING" she says in 'Angels In America: Millennium Approaches' and 'Bring In 'Da Noise/Bring In 'Da Funk' Tony Award winning director George C. Wolf's amazing adaptation and executive Denzel Washington's (who in a 10 picture deal from HBO to Netflix and what might be the most important thing this multi-Oscar winner with as many movies as fellow 90's golden era great and 'Philadelphia' co-star Tom Hanks, is bringing all of theatre poet Wilson's work and 10 play cycle to the fore) perfect production of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright August Wilson's 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom', named after the song they cut in '27. One that aesthetically feels like a play from its one studio setting like the fences of a backyard and shows this fall that August was just as important and real world in a depression inspirational as the 'Cat On A Hot Tin Roof' of 'A Streetcar Named Desire', great American writer Tennessee Williams. Showing the other side of America in all its moral complexity, black and blue bruises and lumps. Unsettling yet unflinching. Showing way before today that black lives matter and what happens in their lives matters even more. As this showcase of black excellence from a James Baldwin like pioneer and game changer shows there's more to the black experience than stereotype and discriminatory themes. Let the opening scene in concert show you where two young men running in a forest surrounded by flames are really running to. 

Black Mamba. Black Panther. Earlier this year, Chadwick Boseman angel wingspan out, posed as Kobe Bryant back on the STAPLES scorers table after winning the 2010 NBA championship against their storied rival the Boston Celtics. It was a tribute to number 24 from 42, photographed by former Houston Rocket champion and current NBA on TNT analyst Kenny 'The Jet' Smith. Who would have known that this man paying tribute to a fallen legend would become one himself mere months later? Sadly and heartbreakingly this man probably did. Suffering, but fighting the good fight against cancer, Chadwick probably knew his time was coming. Painful poignancy yet again. For all the perfect players backing Ma beautifully in this movie. A heart-warming and breaking turn from 'Super 8', 'The Wire' and 'House Of Lies' actor Glynn Turman who with his 'Leftovers' soberingly steals the show here like he did in the film of Ben Affleck's alcoholic basketball coach finding, 'The Way Back' this year. The ever as brilliant as he is underrated 'Selma', 'The Butler', 'If Beale Street Could Talk' (you want to talk about underrated? How did Barry Jenkins' James Baldwin adaptation not sweep the Oscars like 'Moonlight'. Did someone get the wrong envelope?) and forthcoming 'Candyman' star Colman Domingo who needs his name said and in lights. Leading this pack and films narrative with his behind the scenes, but never in the shadows, always in the forefront presence that knows what to do like one, two. And of course the beautiful bassline that underplays and scores it all perfectly in 'Book Of Mormon', 'Wire' and 'True Detective' star Michael Potts. All that and more, but it's Chadwick who gets the people going, getting the band together and making this money like M.J. in his last dance on Netflix. Chadwick always acted like there was no tomorrow. Like this was his last role. And even though this sadly in the end was and it was revealed that he WAS acting like there was no tomorrow, you just know this actor who gave everything to his craft like the shoes he runs across the road for here would of always acting like this regardless of his diagnosis. We just wish we could have seen more of the consistent, never fails, note perfect same from him until the day WE die. Because he should still be here, especially in this horrendous year. But he is...he is. In spirit. As he looks to the heavens and deals even more life and death quotations and statements with lump in the throat and heart, too cruel pathos. "COME ON!" He shouts, looking to the Lord and pointing a switchblade. "COME ON MOTHERF#####!" When his character Levee breaks, so does everything including the waterworks and a new ground for Boseman's brilliance that looks like liquid gold and like Heath Ledger's Joker, something worthy of award and not because he's passed...but because he passed the bar. The fact that he's no longer here just means the Oscar will be a fitting tribute to a man who just in a half decade (but one brimming full of brilliant biopics and superheroes who birthed a nation of inspiration) became one of the greatest actors of all-time. "You don't know what kind of blood I got, what kind of heart I got in me" he screams at his band in unison. Wrestling control of this picture from Viola (with respect) like his character does Rainey. From the epic enthusiasm and excitement of his young shooting stars, foot stepping hubris. To a moving monologue that no words can do justice to, from August's ink to Chadwick's deliverance. A completely stage left turn scene that swipes at you from all directions. And a conclusion that we can't begin to say, or spoil, but will stay with you long after the final curtain, or close of the Netflix laptop lid, quarantined at home. All for something truly powerful from a powerhouse performer in his final bow that will leave as many tears as rose petals. Giving his all to this role, playing his horn for real like his character knows how to write his own music. How can you not trumpet a guy that learnt how to play this instrument, whilst filming all these Marvel movies, WHILST battling colon cancer...in secret? This might just be the G.O.A.T's greatest performance yet. Worthy of more than an award. We may have gone to the bottom this year, but in 'Ma Rainey', Chadwick shooting for the heavens he now rests in takes us to the top. We know what kind of heart this man had...the biggest. Rest peacefully King. For you. TIM DAVID HARVEY. 

Further Filming: 'Fences', 'Mudbound', 'Get On Up'.