Scott calls the film “ a powerful and pungent reminder of the necessity of art.” (For more character-driven drama, check out “ The Two Popes” and “ High Flying Bird. Christopher Nolan’s ambitious fictional drama, set against the events of Operation Dynamo, is a grand spectacle, not an empty onea rare example of the Hollywood blockbuster dollar. Davis is superb as Rainey, chewing up her lines and spitting them out with contempt at anyone who crosses her, and Chadwick Boseman, who died in 2020 and won a posthumous Golden Globe best actor award for his performance, is electrifying as the showy sideman, Levee, a boiling pot of charisma, flash and barely concealed rage. The setting is a Chicago music studio in 1927, where the “Mother of the Blues” Ma Rainey (Viola Davis) and her band are meeting to record several of her hits, though that business is frequently disrupted by the tensions within the group over matters both personal and artistic. Wolfe brings August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize winner to the screen, quite faithfully - which is just fine, as a play this good requires little in the way of “opening up,” so rich are the characters and so loaded is the dialogue.
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