Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020 film)

It’s hard to view this while ignoring all sorts of real-life context, including the passing of the actor in the main role. Boseman’s final performance may have been his best, making sense of an ambitious man at the end of his rope, but plenty of the rest of the cast, including Davis in the title role, give him a run for his money in this pressure cooker built around one bad recording session. This has already been nominated for many awards and I wouldn’t be surprised if it were nominated for many more, and the ending, oh, God, the ending.

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