Review of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) by Deadangel04 — 22 Dec 2020

Chadwick Boseman was a really good actor and before his untimely passing he had already given us one amazing, Oscar-worthy performance that was sadly ignored by the Academy. That was portraying Jackie Robinson, a really great and inspirational character in the movie "42".

His acting here is still pretty good, but his character is not inspirational at all and he doesn't resemble a real character, a real person, he actually feels like a caricature as all of the characters in "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom".

Even Ma Rainey, who was an actual person and not a fictional character as the rest of them, feels like a caricature despite Viola Davis' amazing performance. Unfortunately it's not easy to adapt a play into a movie and as a film, "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" is subpar, lacking a good script, solid characters, actual build-up, focus, any essence at all.

I mean, what was the point after all? The emotion is there in some scenes, but it doesn't lead anywhere and in that regard, those scenes feel pointless in the end. And this film isn't even about the music as some people might think.

Not at all actually! This isn't even a proper antiracist movie. And the ending was the worst and the most unsatisfying movie ending I've seen in a while. Seriously now, Chadwick Boseman deserved better.

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