MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM
Netflix, 3:00 a.m. ET
MOVIE PREMIERE: This is a new version of the August Wilson play Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, and it’s directed by George C. Wolfe, who on Broadway wrote and directed Jelly’s Last Jam and directed Angels in America. He opens up this adaptation of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom by recreating the period streets and hotel lobbies of Chicago, circa 1927 – then dives into a ramshackle recording studio, where a white record label has scheduled a recording session with Southern blues pioneer Ma Rainey and her band. One of her horn players, Levee, is ambitious and contentious – while Ma herself is even more contentious, set in her ways and aware of her clout. And here’s where Wilson’s play really explodes into crackling life, because Ma is played by Viola Davis, who’s every bit as imposing and impressive as the character she’s playing – and the horn player is played by Chadwick Boseman, in his final screen role. Boseman, who died in August at age 43 after a four-year bout with cancer, had kept his illness secret, while starring in such impactful roles as Thurgood Marshall and Marvel’s Black Panther. In Ma Rainey, both he and Davis are wonderful. And some of the rants Boseman spews as Levee, about both racial inequality and death, have remarkable added weight given the events of 2020 – including Boseman’s own untimely death.