Review: "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" Hits the Sweetest High Notes

Scene from Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

To sing the blues is to pour your heart out to the world. With every aching note, the struggles of the individual reflect a community eager to be heard. It's something that lives inside the Black community, serving as a survival tool throughout years of oppression and reminding everyone what it means to be human. But given how diverse the voices within this group are, one has to ask the question: what is the blues? Who gets to control the direction that it goes? Throughout director George C. Wolfe's fantastic adaptation of Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, he explores this question in great detail over a sweltering summer day in 1927. What follows is a phenomenal showcase of talent, finding Chadwick Boseman and Viola Davis butting heads with electric performances and even more energetic music. It's one of the year's most vibrant stories and one that never lets up for the entire ride.

The First Trailer for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom" Sings a Sweet Melody for Oscar Season

Scene from Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Anyone who is doubting that Netflix isn't going to dominate this year's ceremony clearly hasn't been inundated with endless trailers in the past month. It feels like every week now they're introducing a new title that will populate every field, whether it be Mank, The Trial of the Chicago 7, or the latest August Wilson adaptation Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. While there have been various photos released, this trailer marks the first major look at the film which, among other things, marks the final performance by Chadwick Boseman. With all of that said, this Denzel Washington-produced movie looks to follow in the path of Fences with a great movie that not only please crowds but will likely win an Oscar or two.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Widows" (2018)

Scene from Widows

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: "Suicide Squad" (2016)

Scene from Suicide Squad

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

Review: "Widows" is the Best Kind of Heist Film Imaginable

Scene from Widows

In 2013, director Steve McQueen released 12 Years a Slave. It was a film so vital and important that it could be considered one of the rare essential American films of the 21st century so far. With stark honesty, he captured an uncomfortable piece of U.S. history and helped to reshape the history, and all with lingering shots of brutality that forces the viewer to soak in the discomfort. So, how does McQueen follow up the film? Fives years later he has returned with Widows, which in the first 30 seconds features a brash edit so explosive that it rattles the audience in a new way. This is McQueen not as the methodical filmmaker he has been known as, but as someone who places urgency in every frame, artistry in every angle, and enough memorable bits to make this one of the best films of 2018. It's a heist movie with one of the year's greatest ensembles and an even more electric script by Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl). It's a film that will grab you in your seat and not let go for the entire two hours. It's perfect evidence that McQueen doesn't only make good art films, but just good films in geneal.

Viola Davis Regrets Certain Things About "The Help"

Viola Davis in The Help

This Oscar season already has a packed schedule of potential nominees. Among them is Viola Davis, who recently won an Oscar for her role in Fences.This year she returns with a major role in the Steve McQueen-directed heist film Widows, what has already received a lot of acclaim at various film festivals. However, there's already some concern over Davis' recent past, as she has given an interview where she claims that she regretted her work in The Help. Does this mean she hates the role? Well, not exactly. What she meant it something a bit more nuanced and maybe more understandable in 2018 than it was in 2011 when the film became a late-summer sensation.

Here's the List for This Year's Golden Globe Winners

Scene from La La Land

Yesterday was a big day for movie lovers as The Golden Globes gave out awards to the best in TV and film. While this year's nominees were at times baffling (it's par for the course), the results were surprising often in a good way. With La La Land winning seven awards - the most by one film - it is looking more and more likely that Damien Chazelle's musical will take all of the trophies home come Oscar night. For those who want to know who won, keep reading. It was definitely a year of interesting diversity, and that's the perfect set-up for what this Oscar season needs. The only question is how much overlap we expect to get.

Review: "Fences" is a Powerhouse Full of Great Acting

Scene from Fences

The process of adapting live theater to film is often seen as a challenge. For the first movie based on beloved playwright August Wilson's work, Denzel Washington tackles Wilson's most revered work that even earned Washington and co-star Viola Davis Tony Awards for its 2010 revival. There's a love to the language and the performance that shines through from the first second of the film as Troy (Washington) comes home from his job as a garbageman. He is cocky, optimistic, but also sour at the wrong turn of phrase. It is a story of the changing tides in African American culture in the 1950's as well as the disappointments and fears of fathers passing the baton on to another generation. As an adaptation, it's as riveting and engrossing as acting is likely to get in 2016. As a movie, it leaves plenty to be desired.

The First "Fences" is Here for Oscar Season to Like It

Scene from Fences

As October approaches, it's time to take the Oscar season a lot more seriously. Earlier this week, we saw Martin Scorsese join the race with Silence. Other films like La La Land and Moonlight have been receiving acclaim at various film festivals ahead of their releases. While it is likely that most of the surefire nominees are already known, director Denzel Washington's Fences has released its first teaser to suggest that things aren't as locked up as they appear. Based on an August Wilson play (who also wrote the screenplay), it's a story of a father's struggle with race relations and family in the 1950's. To say the least, it's intense, and sure to get Washington and co-star Viola Davis easy access to the nominations circle this Fall.

This Oscars Ceremony Performers and Presenters Continue to Get Weirder

Lady GaGa

If the current line-up of performers and presenters at the Oscars hasn't gotten you all sorts of excited, curious and confused, then you're about to experience a whirlwind of surprises. While previous reports have announced the familiar line-up of performers who will sing the Best Original Song nominees, there hasn't been too great of an understanding of what the show itself will be like. It has only been a week and it looks like we'll be having one of the craziest ceremonies in years. Or at least one of the most inventive.

Failed Oscar Campaigns: The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby:: Them (2014)

Left to right: James McAvoy and Jessica Chastain

As awards seasons pick up, so do the campaigns to make your film have the best chances at the Best Picture race. However, like a drunken stupor, sometimes these efforts come off as trying too hard and leave behind a trailer of ridiculous flamboyance. Join me on every other Saturday for a highlight of the failed campaigns that make this season as much about prestige as it does about train wrecks. Come for the Harvey Weinstein comments and stay for the history. It's going to be a fun time as I explore cinema's rich history of attempting to matter.

Review: "Get on Up" Does James Brown Justice and Nobody Else

Chadwick Boseman

There are few figures in music history that are as pompous, exciting, and wild as James Brown was at the height of his career. He could dance, sing, and almost seemed to control the world with music that may have seemed lyrically banal, but was invigorating with passion and funk. It only makes sense that he would eventually join Ray Charles and Johnny Cash and get the biopic treatment. Director Tate Taylor manages to make a nice flashy package in which we get a sense of who Brown (Chadwick Boseman) was, but what does it all equal up to besides a scrapbook of memories? Get on Up, for better or worse, is a film that benefits from an interesting subject that is more interesting than he should be during the dull parts.

Will "Get on Up" Make Boseman One of This Year's First Oscar Contenders?

Chadwick Boseman

In terms of music icons, there are very few standards. The most notable ones were eccentric types with definitive personalities. They entertained not only through song, but influenced fashion, physicality, and helped to shape the pop culture landscape. One of the loudest and innocuous icons is James Brown, whose music may lyrically seem surface level, but unified nations during political turmoil in the 60's and set precedents for African Americans in music. There is a reason that he is The Godfather of Soul and is the most sampled artist in history. He had a universal appeal in his simplicity. So how do you capture the magic of a performer who was so vivacious and magnetic without coming up short? Director Tate Taylor's Get on Up at very least looks to attempt to do the flamboyant man some justice.