Critical popcorn

Today we’ve got the superb trailer, and a host of character images here, for the coming Netflix film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which stars the late Chadwick Boseman (the loss of which still saddens me, and so many) and the tremendous Viola Davis as Ma Rainey, it comes to the streaming platform from 18 December, and looks superb!

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Directed by George C. Wolfe, written by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, which is based on the play by Fences scribe August Wilson, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is set in the 1920s and celebrates the transformative power of the blues and the artists who refuse to let society’s prejudices dictate their worth. Coming with a score from the legendary Branford Marsalis, and also co-starring Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts, Jonny Coyne, Taylour Paige, Jeremy Shamos, Dusan Brown, and Joshua Harto, here’s some more synopsis:

Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey (Viola Davis). Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio’s claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee (Chadwick Boseman) — who has an eye for Ma’s girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry — spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories revealing truths that will forever change the course of their lives.

netflix.com/maraineysblackbottom

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