Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom cannot be faulted for its heart. It delves into the world of Ma and her band, black musical artists at the turn of the century in a white world whose powers that be view their talents only as a commodity. From this inequity erupts the film's passion and pain, but there is little framework around to support it.
The film is the latest adaptation of an August Wilson play, and like Fences, it stars Viola Davis in the titular role of Ma and Chadwick Boseman as her ambitious trumpet player, Levee, who has no time for anything or anyone getting in his way. After a cinematically vibrant opening, the rest of the film occurs in two rooms: a recording studio where Ma is attempting to record her latest album, and a rehearsal basement where Levee's ambitions begin to disrupt her style and bring tension in the band. That tension isn't just consigned to Ma and Levee's relationship though. The film suffers from the strain of trying to contort from a play into its new form as a film.
Plays are big. Big performances, big emotions, and big orations attempt to draw in and absorb the audience, investing them in the story and characters. Film on the other hand has many additional tools at its disposal to tell a story or capture a tone, from the camera and editing, to the changing in setting and sound. And so when a play meets a camera it's hard to translate the story which must be told through lines and acting, to a story which can be shown to us and enhanced in so many ways. And unfortunately the performances of Ma Rainey are both its strength and weakness.
The heart of this film is bleeding for the oppression, struggle, and trauma of the people on display, and the acting is heavy-handed and allowed to take up most scenes, the soliloquies long and ornate and the motifs propped up conspicuously and telegraphed. It's not that I don't enjoy watching what Davis and Boseman do here. It's more than what resonates on stage can feel off and unnatural on camera, and thus making this less a story I connected with as much as an acting class. Can't help feeling those performances could've been better utilized for this film by a lighter touch rather than always having center stage. - RyGuy