Stunned by Viola Davis, Chadwick Boseman and the rest of the cast in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Loved the documentary aesthetic in the opening sequence. Loved the intimacy of the cinematography and acting. Some of my favorite monologues were cut or trimmed, but I recognize a movie can express in a montage or a camera angle a relationship it takes a stage play longer to tell.
August Wilson’s script has Levee notice a door that the other band members don’t seem interested in. What director George C. Wolfe does with that door is brilliant.
Loved the intimate close-ups objectifying the delicate moving parts of the recording equipment. Even though I know the play well I still gasped at the climactic moment, and I gasped again at the added scene that shows what happened to Levee’s songs.
