The loss of Chadwick Boseman is still being felt, and will be for some time. While there is that tinge of sadness to the release of the trailer for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the final role of Boseman’s career, there is some solace to be taken in that it looks like Netflix has a real winner on their hands that his fans are going to want to see.
Based on the cherished August Wilson play, the film stars Boseman as a jazz musician at odds with the legendary blues singer, Ma Rainey, played by Viola Davis, during a contentious recording session. The film is directed by George C. Wolfe, who previously directed The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack and Lackawanna Blues. The cast includes Glynn Turman, Colman Domingo, Michael Potts, Jonny Coyne, Taylour Paige, Jeremy Shamos, Dusan Brown, and Joshua Harto.
But the draw here, more than ever, is Boseman, and this looks like an especially soulful way to draw his short but meaningful career to a close.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom hits Netflix on December 18th.
SYNOPSIS: Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey (Academy Award® winner Viola Davis). Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio’s claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee (Chadwick Boseman) — who has an eye for Ma’s girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry — spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories revealing truths that will forever change the course of their lives.
