Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

- Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. (2022. Dir. George C. Wolfe)

During a sweltering summer day in 1927, singer Ma Rainey, dubbed The Mother of Blues, is en route to a recording session. As her band waits for her and rehearses, the musicians share anecdotes about daily frustrations —sometimes, about deeply rooted horrors. In particular, ambitious Levee clashes with his older, religious, somewhat uptight bandmates. Rainey meanwhile wages a careful battle between her ego and the constant menace of losing her carefully calculated privileges. All passions and frustrations will come out with music. Thus the recording session becomes a day of soul-searching —precisely what the true blues is all about! 

Terrific film adaptation of the classic August Wilson stage-play, itself loosely based on real-life anecdotes. From the careful recreation of the era’s fashions to the powerhouse performances and the thorough dissection of racial conflicts then and now. The commentary on the violence that is sometimes performed between the oppressed as the only valve left to them itself remains both shocking and poignant. And of course, there's the highly energetic musical performances. 

In sort, not to be missed. 

*