Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) review

 

While the late August Wilson was responsible for several highly regarded plays, his most notable piece of work was The Pittsburgh Cycle, a series of ten plays that, while not directly connected to each other in a ‘franchise’ sort of way, explored the lifestyles of African Americans throughout the 20^th century. Each play was set in a different decade ranging from the 1900s to the 1990s and all but one of them were set in Wilson’s hometown, the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. And in 2016, the first theatrically-released film adaptation of these plays was made based on 1985’s Fences. The film starred Denzel Washington and Viola Davis, who reprised the same lead roles that they portrayed in the play’s 2010 Broadway revival, and was also notably directed by the former. And upon its release, it was a solid hit with critics and earned Davis an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. This would prove to be the first of Washington’s efforts to adapt Wilson’s work thanks to a deal made with HBO (which was then moved to Netflix) to produce adaptations of other Pittsburgh Cycle plays. Thus, we now have an adaptation of 1982’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which presents a dramatized tale about the titular legendary blues singer, Ma Rainey. But while this one also stars Viola Davis, Washington’s only a producer this time around whereas directing duties go to George C. Wolfe who, like Wilson, is also a highly regarded veteran of theater. And under his strong direction, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is another top-notch adaptation of a classic August Wilson play.

On a hot summer day in Chicago in 1927, blues singer Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) and her band partake in a recording session organized by her manager Irvin (Jeremy Shamos) and Mel Sturdyvant (Jonny Coyne), the owner of their studio space. However, Ma isn’t too keen on the recording process and would much rather stick to her touring performances down South. Thus, what should’ve been a relatively easy day ends up getting increasingly complicated by Ma’s frequent creative clashes with Irvin and Sturdyvant, from her preference over which version of her hit song ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ that they’re recording to her request to have her nephew Sylvester (Dusan Brown) perform with the group despite his stuttering problem. And if that wasn’t enough, some major tensions begin to develop amongst her band members. Down in their practice room, pianist Toledo (Glynn Turman) and guitarist and trombone player Cutler (Colman Domingo) find themselves butting heads with Ma’s trumpeter, Levee Green (Chadwick Boseman), who aspires to have a band of his own thanks to a deal with Sturdyvant to produce his own songs. And as the day drags on, all the drama that forms around those in Sturdyvant’s studio only proceeds to get worse and worse to the point where it all ends in tragedy. 

The one thing that surprised me the most about Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was how drastically shorter it was when compared to Fences. Whereas Fences boasted a hefty 139-minute runtime, Ma Rainey’s is only an hour and a half long. Now admittedly, I’m not too familiar with August Wilson’s work so I don’t know how accurate this is to the play itself, but at the same time, I’m sure that it makes perfect sense in this instance since this is one of those ‘bottle episode’ type stories that takes place over the course of a single day in a single location. And with that in mind, I’d say that this helps make Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom just as sharply written of a play as Fences was even if it wasn’t a Pulitzer Prize winner like the latter. As strong as Fences was in conveying its themes such as the struggle to achieve the American Dream and to properly provide for one’s family, it did suffer a bit from the fact that, because of its ‘stage-y’ nature, you could often feel the brunt of its long runtime. Ma Rainey’s, by comparison, does have the same ‘stage-y’ feel to its proceedings but is arguably a lot more focused on portraying the struggles that African Americans faced in the years before the Civil Rights Movement. Whether it’s one of the band members telling a tragic tale of race-related violence or simply the whole premise of Black performers being exploited by their White managers, this film serves as a grim reminder of this country’s dark past… and, unfortunately, certain incidents from our current times.

Just like Fences, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a premier actor’s showcase headlined by the phenomenal lead duo of Viola Davis as the titular Ma Rainey and Chadwick Boseman as her ambitious trumpet player Levee. Davis, in her second leading role in a Denzel Washington produced adaptation of an August Wilson play, shines as always as the strong-willed Ma, although it is worth noting that, because of how this story is structured, she isn’t really the main character here even though said story bears her name. Instead, that distinction goes to Chadwick Boseman as Levee since much of the run-time is based around the conversations that he has with Toledo, Cutler, and double bass player Slow Drag (Michael Potts). Thus, the most talked-about aspect of this film has easily been Boseman’s performance, especially since it ends up being the last performance of his career in the wake of his tragic death last August due to colon cancer. Despite this, however, Boseman once again proves that he was truly one of the best actors of his time with a phenomenal performance where, despite playing an incredibly cocky braggart who frequently acts like he’s better than any of his peers, still manages to be rather sympathetic at times because of his tragic backstory. And while much attention has been placed on Davis and Boseman’s performances, their co-stars are just as great as well, especially Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, and Michael Potts as Ma’s other band members.

Thanks to the one-two punch of Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, it’s clear that Denzel Washington’s role of being the key creative force behind the process of adapting August Wilson’s Pittsburgh Cycle to the big screen means that this material couldn’t be in better hands. While Fences wasn’t exactly my ‘favorite’ film from 2016, it was still very much a well-made adaptation that was fully bolstered by strong lead performances and the undisputed brilliance of August Wilson’s writing. And sure enough, this also applies to Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which is arguably even better by comparison. Obviously, a lot of what I say here will ultimately come down to personal preference, but I feel that Ma Rainey’s manages to get its thematic points across better, namely because it’s a lot shorter. At just 94 minutes long, it never overstays its welcome, and while it may carry the same ‘stage-y’ quality that was heavily apparent in Fences, that doesn’t stop it from being a solidly engaging and wholly relevant story. And, of course, the biggest selling point of this film is the amazing pair of lead performances from Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman. It’s safe to say that the two of them will be attracting a lot of attention during awards season, and in Boseman’s case, it would be an incredibly fitting way to honor a bonafide cinematic icon in the wake of him being taken away from us way too soon.

Rating: 4.5/5

Soul (2020) review (Disney+)

If there was even remotely a downside to the wondrous prospect of getting two Pixar films in a single year, it would be the fact that the more well-received entry of the two always ends up overshadowing the other. To be fair, though, this is never the films’ fault as it’s just the natural consequence of the consistently competitive nature of the film industry. Still, there’s no denying that this scenario has very much happened before whenever Pixar releases multiple films in a year. Whereas 2015’s Inside Out was their biggest hit in years, The Good Dinosaur was their first major commercial flop. And in 2017, all eyes were on the two-time Oscar winner that was Coco, thus leaving the decent Cars 3, a genuinely superior follow-up to what ended up being Pixar’s first critical dud (2011’s Cars 2), in the dust. Sure enough, this is something that will probably happen this year as well, which began with the release of Dan Scanlon’s Onward, a film that, despite being royally screwed over by COVID from a financial perspective did solidly with critics but not quite as well as Soul has fared with them. To reiterate, though, everything that I’ve said in this intro is not meant to be a dig against Soul; I mean, seriously, how could I when it’s the latest outing from one of Pixar’s most prolific directors, Pete Docter. Simply put, Pixar’s newly appointed Chief Creative Officer has been responsible for some of their most critically acclaimed releases such as the previously mentioned Inside Out, his directorial debut from 2001, Monsters Inc, and 2009’s Up AKA the second-ever animated film in history to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars after Beauty and the Beast. And sure enough, he delivers yet another beautifully animated and emotionally poignant masterpiece with Soul.

Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx) is a part-time music teacher in New York City who, despite being offered a full-time teaching gig, primarily aspires to become a jazz musician just like his late father. Luckily for him, he manages to earn an opportunity to achieve that dream when he impresses legendary jazz performer Dorothea Williams (voiced by Angela Bassett) enough for her to invite him to perform with her band. Unfortunately for Joe, his big break is then immediately upended when he ends up in an accident that puts him on a one-way ticket to the Great Beyond. However, Joe’s insistence that it isn’t his time results in him escaping into the exact opposite dimension, the Great Before, where all new human souls are molded into the personalities that they’ll become once they arrive on Earth. It is there that Joe meets 22 (voiced by Tina Fey), a soul who has been stuck in the Great Before for quite some time because of her cynical outlook on life on Earth that has kept her from finding the ‘spark’ that completes a soul’s identity. And once he figures out that he’s still alive on Earth, Joe teams up with 22 to try and get him back into his body so that his life won’t end up being a complete waste of his potential; in the process, Joe even begins to convince 22 of all the great things that life has to offer.

While it’s probably easy to compare this film to Pete Docter’s last project, Inside Out, it should be noted that Soul is far from being a ‘clone’ of that film. Instead, I’d describe it as a ‘spiritual companion’ piece since both films focus on the things that make us humans tick, albeit through different methods. In the case of Inside Out, this was, of course, by way of it exploring the concept of one’s emotions, thus showcasing the importance of all facets of the emotional spectrum rather than just a single emotional trait. As for Soul… well, the title speaks for itself as Docter and co-director Kemp Powers do a fantastic job of tackling themes such as finding one’s purpose in life and the unique things that folks are passionate about. This naturally results in a lot of great emotional moments which, to be fair, is something that you can always expect to see in a Pixar film but are arguably even more powerful here given the subject matter and how it encourages us all to live our lives to the fullest. And as to be expected from a Pixar film, Soul sports some terrific animation, especially when it comes to the wonderfully abstract landscape that is the Great Before where the counselors who oversee everything are presented as if they’re two-dimensional beings in this computer-animated feature. Plus, the entire film is bolstered by a great collection of delightful jazz tunes from the Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s Jon Batiste.

One long-standing Pixar tradition that Soul dutifully maintains is the well-layered lead duo that headlines the story; in this instance, we have Joe Gardner and Soul #22, who easily take their place alongside other classic Pixar duos such as Woody and Buzz Lightyear from the Toy Story series and Mike and Sulley from Monsters Inc. As Joe, Jamie Foxx does a great job in making the aspiring jazz musician a solidly likable protagonist even with all the instances where his lofty aspirations end up clouding his judgment to the point where he makes some selfish decisions. And as 22, Tina Fey is a natural fit for the role of Joe’s hilariously snarky sidekick who ends up getting just as many great emotional beats as he does since her sarcastic persona is revealed to be masking an incredibly sympathetic backstory. Soul also has plenty of another Pixar staple, memorable supporting characters, and while I do think that this is another instance like Onward where the story largely focuses more on Joe and 22 than anyone else, that doesn’t mean that we don’t get a bunch of fun side characters. U.K. talk-show host Graham Norton, for example, is an utter delight as Moonwind, an eccentric sign twirler on Earth who also helps save lost souls in the Great Before. There’s also plenty of reliable supporting players such as Rachel House as Terry, the official soul counter of the Great Beyond who tries to locate Joe when he goes missing, Alice Braga and Richard Ayoade as two of the Counselors in the Great Before (who, for the record, are all named Jerry), and Phylicia Rashad as Joe’s overbearing mother Libba.

I realize that what I’m about to say will probably be one of the most cliched and obvious statements that I’ve ever made as a film critic, but at the same time, it’s ironically an incredibly apt way of conveying exactly what kind of film this is. In other words, the one word that I would use to describe Pete Docter’s Soul is that it’s… soulful. With gorgeous animation and a top-notch story that tackles incredibly relevant concepts, Soul is arguably one of the best examples of an animated film that flawlessly appeals to both kids and adults. It covers some of the most thematically deep and mature themes that have ever been featured in a Pixar film and, in true Pixar fashion, pulls off an emotionally cathartic tale that, above all, ends up being a heartwarming celebration of life, thus making this an incredibly timely release in the age of COVID-19. Sure, COVID may have been the reason why Soul was forced to forego its theatrical release in favor of debuting on Disney+, but that doesn’t stop it from being another one of Pixar’s modern masterpieces. To be fair, though, that’s basically what’s to be expected at this point when it comes to the Pixar films that are directed by Pete Docter, and while this is probably going to be his last directorial effort for a while as he transitions into the role of Pixar’s Chief Creative Officer, it’s safe to say that this will attract a lot of attention during awards season.

Rating: 5/5!