Chicago, 1927. On a hot summers day Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) and her band have a recording session and talented horn player Levee (Chadwick Boseman) has his eyes on his own stardom as well as Rainey’s girlfriend. 

Denzel Washington has been tasked with bringing playwright August Wilson’s “Century Cycle” to film and this is the second of ten planned films after Fences which Washington directed and starred in. Here Washington acts as Producer with Ruben Santiago-Hudson as screenwriter and George C. Wolfe in the director’s chair. 

As with Fences this film suffers slightly from its transition from stage to screen despite having stunning performances. Where it succeeds though in comparison to Fences is it has a much more spritely running time of ninety-four minutes and a natural inbuilt soundtrack of blues music to break up the powerful monologues and discussions.

Levee spends most of his time in the basement with his much older band mates Cutler (Colman Domingo), Toledo (Glynn Turman) and Slow Drag (Michael Potts). The group ruminate on fashion, music and the oppression of black people. Chadwick Boseman in his final performance before his untimely death is electric. He has two monologues that will have you on the edge of your seat filled with anguish and rage. His belief that he will be great despite the odds against him is infectious. His performances in this and Da 5 Bloods this year really show what a tragic and untimely loss his death was. 

Ma Rainey on the other hand knows her worth and understands that her white manager and the studio owner only care about her enough to get her to record her music. So she will use her talent to get exactly what she wants, whether that is an ice cold coke or having her nephew get paid for appearing on her record. Viola Davis puts in an equally barnstorming performance as the single minded “mother of blues”. 

The acting is absolutely top tier, the subject matter is prescient and the finale is a hammer blow summing up the exploitation of black artists by white producers.