“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” acclaimed by critics lauding the powerhouse performances of Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman, is already named as one of the ten best films of 2021 by the American Film Institute.

Based on the play of the same name by August Wilson. The story focuses on Ma Rainey, an influential blues singer, and dramatizes a turbulent recording session in 1920s Chicago. Davis plays the real-life Ma Rainey, the Georgia singer dubbed the Mother of the Blues. Boseman invests body and soul into Levee, the hot-headed trumpeter who dares to lock horns with the uncontrollable Ma in a shabby Chicago recording studio where they’re paid to make music the way the white bosses want it.

Imagine this one in the Dolby surround sound of your historic Tybee Post Theater! Rotten Tomatoes give the film a 98% fresh rating:  “Framed by a pair of powerhouse performances, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom pays affectionate tribute to a blues legend — and Black culture at large.”

Both Boseman and Davis have been nominated for Golden Globe awards. The LA Times writes, “Boseman, evincing the same integrity he clung to his entire career, refuses to soft-pedal the destination. He imparts to this seething, shattered man the gift of a broken soul, driven by anger and trauma, and makes him all the more human for it. His final moments of screen time are among his darkest, and also his finest.” Rated R.

Four screenings only: Sat. March 27, 3 & 7 pm; Sun. March 28, 3 & 7 pm