Yes No Maybe So: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Monday, October 19, 2020 at 11:17PM
NATHANIEL R in August Wilson, Chadwick Boseman, George C Wolfe, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Netflix, Oscars (20), Reviews, Viola Davis

by Nathaniel R

Chadwick heading for a posthumous Oscar nod?

How about them songs I give you?

Netflix is trying the shotgun approach this year by releasing one buzzy potential Oscar contender after another. Perhaps they felt emboldened by landing two (The Irishman, Marriage Story) of the nine Best Picture nods last year and coming close to a third with The Two Popes.  Of course no studio ever has only hits but they've already released Da 5 Bloods, i'm Thinking of Ending Things, The Boys in the Band, and Da 5 Bloods and still to come are The Prom, The Life Ahead, Pieces of a Woman, The Midnight Sky, Hillbilly Elegy, and tonight's topic: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom  so they'll probably do well this year with an overall nomination tally. How many actual Best Picture contenders is a more difficult question.

About Ma Rainey...

Denzel Washington plans to produce film versions of August Wilson's entire Pittsburgh Cycle (10 plays about the African-American experience, each set in a different decade of the 20th century). He started with Fences, which was Best Picture nominated for 2016, and now we have the second in the planned series, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.  

August Wilson's cycle wasn't written in chronological order and Denzel isn't producing them in that order either. They arrived from Wilson like so (we've included their big prizes for awards history fun)... 

1. Jitney (Tony Award, Olivier Award, NY Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics)
2. Ma Rainey... (Tony Nominee, NY Drama Critics Circle)
3. Fences (Pulitzer, Tony Award, Drama Desk, Outer Critics) 
4. Joe Turner... (Tony Nominee)
5. The Piano Lesson (Pulitzer, Tony Nominee, Drama Desk, NY Drama Critics Circle)
6. Two Trains Running (Tony Nominee, American Theatre Critics, NY Drama Critics Circle)
7. Seven Guitars (Tony Nominee, NY Drama Critics Circle)
8. King Hedley II (Tony Nominee)
9. Gem of the Ocean (Tony Nominee)
10. Radio Golf (Tony Nominee)

But if you put them in decade chronology they'd go like so

1. Gem of the Ocean (1900s)
2. Joe Turner's Come and Gone (1910s)
3. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (1920s)
4. The Piano Lesson (1930s)
5. Seven Guitars (1940s)
6. Fences (1950s)
7. Two Trains Running (1960s)
8. Jitney (1970s)
9. King Hedley II (1980s)
10. Radio Golf (1990s) 

Who knows what order Denzel will produce them? We hope he hurries though because if he waits four years between each as he did between Fences and Ma Rainey he'll literally be 98 years old by the time the last one rolls around. 

At any rate let's do the Yes No Maybe So...

YES

This'd be an empty world without the blues

 

• Chadwick Boseman's final performance and it looks like a keeper. And from this early look, it looks like his film, too (it's worth noting that, despite the title, this is usually the most-lauded role for actors in productions of Ma Rainey) 
• We'll always be eager-eyed for a new Viola Davis performance. It's impossible to know from a trailer (2 minute edited clipreels are no subsitute for actual 2 hour performances) but it looks like she's pushing herself and delivering up the goods in a different way. Yay!
• The costumes  by the Tony & Oscar winning legend Ann Roth look delicious. Curiously despite the fact that Ann Roth has been the costume designer of 106 (!!!) Broadway shows she's never done an August Wilson. Viola Davis gained a lot of weight for the part but Ma Rainey was much bigger so how many tricks did Ann Roth have to do for the costumes? 

• Can we start a Colman Domingo Appreciation Club? Who will join us?! He deserves a breakout movie role. 
• Glad that Denzel Washington isn't going to direct all of these. He's such a genius actor but those are different skill sets. it would be wonderful if this series gave showy opportunities to multiple talented black directors.  

NO

• Today is not December 18th. 

 

MAYBE SO

• What's going on with the vocals? We assume Viola is lipsynching or dubbed. But it would be even more satisfying if she somehow also was hiding a genius vocalist talent among her many gifts.
• We'll be curious to see what the various department heads bring to the table. A lot of solid players who haven't quite broken out into being superstars in their field and/or Oscar nominees. Will this picture be the one to do it? Tobias A Schliessler is the cinematographer. His best looking film to date is surely Dreamgirls (2006) so this should give him another chance to step up his game. Mark Ricker is the production designer. Oscar arguably stiffed him for a nomination for The Help. This is his third picture with Viola and second with Boseman (he also did The Help and Get On Up). The editor is Andrew Mondsheim who was nominated a long time ago now for The Sixth Sense (1999). Music-oriented films can be a blessing for craftspeople in terms of awards play. We shall see?
• Director George C Wolfe. He's an undisputed legend of the stage but can he make a movie sing? His two previous films (You're Not You and Nights in Rodanthe) didn't get people excited though he had more success directing for television (Lackawanna Blues). 

How eager are you to see this? 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).