Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2021)

Anchored by two excellent central performances from the late Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, unfortunately, doesn't quite sell itself as a film. Based on a stage play, the film suffers from its own origins, and doesn't fully work in film format, in the way that another film on this list does. Still, the performances are superb, and Boseman, in one of his last screen roles is not to be bet against for a posthumous Oscar. It's a film that also struggles to break away from its own claustrophobia; although the film takes place in just a few rooms, which is fine, it's a relief on the couple of occasions the camera does venture outside, and you can almost taste the fresh air. That's both a compliment and a criticism, it's a testament to the performances that I felt this way, but I wished it was a little less stagey. Ma Rainey's Bottom also endures the same theater to screen adaptation issues as Denzel Washington's Fences (2016), and although both films have been held up highly in critical circles, they both fall well short of what you might expect from the individuals involved. That said, Ma Rainey is a better film than Fences for my money. 6.5/10