Released on December 18 on Netflix, The Blues of Ma Rainey marks the last appearance of actor Chadwick Boseman, who died last August at the age of 43. Directed by George C. Wolfe, this is the last posthumous performance of the actor (apart from a voice appearance in the future Marvel series What if …?). And even if we obviously regret his passing, Le Blues de Ma Rainey is a superb swan song for the actor.
Ma Rainey's Blues: An Intelligent Adaptation
Adapted from August Wilson's 1984 Pulitzer Prize-winning play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, the film by George C. Wolfe is a touching success. The film is set in 1920s Chicago. The story focuses on a recording assignment of a blues band, led by the legendary Ma Rainey, considered the mother of the blues. Superbly embodied by Viola Davis, the star, capricious, makes his musicians wait, and has a complicated relationship with his producers, and the trumpeter of his group: Levee. The latter is embodied by the verve and talent of the late Chadwick Boseman. This character has the ambition to go solo and set up his own group. At the same time, he is attracted to Ma's girlfriend, which is enough to create a lot of tension. 
The stage is set. and George C. Wolfe offers a perfectly controlled closed eight. The filmmaker seems to have understood the ins and outs of the play. He transmits them to the screen with great assiduity. He does not hesitate to propose a very theatrical, even almost caricatured staging. A brilliant and intelligent tribute to the base material that gives a special flavor to the film. The atmosphere is attractive, and gives material to enter into the tribulations and endless dialogues of its protagonists.
A golden cast
The film obviously owes a lot to its two main performers. Chadwick Boseman offers an inhabited service. Visibly hollowed out by the disease, he perfectly integrates his character and transmits a real desire to do well. Some even speak of a posthumous Oscar for the actor. But it is Viola Davis who really bursts the screen. She plays an imposing, free and terribly convincing Ma. A complex character, who allows to approach the themes of his time with great subtlety. Whether it is homosexuality, the place of women in society, and the condition of blacks, everything reasons perfectly well in this brilliantly written character. 
Because beyond the very seductive form in the form of eight closed, Le Blues de Ma Rainey addresses important societal topics. The film analyzes both the situation of blacks in American society at the time; but also the position of artists in show business. Whether through artistic creation or the financial relationship with producers. George C. Wolfe perfectly transcribes the status of artists in the social structure, in relation to audiences and in relation to funding. And it's a subject that makes perfect sense with our modern world, because things haven't changed that much. And then the last shot is absolutely edifying, and reminds us that celebrity can be created from scratch, and can also be a political instrument, regardless of any talent. Ma Rainey's Blues is a smart, well-written and well-paced film. Unexpected theatrical staging, effective dialogues, impactful characters. Social, artistic and political subjects are approached with finesse, through an exciting semi-eight. https://youtu.be/N5gGUT4qH88
