Films/DVD Asylum

"Ma Rainey's Black Bottom:" I'd like to say this was a gripping drama with fantastic music---

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but that would be incorrect. Viola Davis, as Ma, did her best with very trite, over-the-top dialogue. Chadwich Boseman, similarly, was ill-used in the contrived and trite character he played. Why, he barely left enough scenery for his fellows to nibble on. That didn't stop them from trying, however.

This is the type of filmed play where each actor has their turn to speechify, in this case, for minutes on end.

The closing credits featured music from the original singer and that just showed how poor the overall work was.

If you're sitting around and cannot thing of what to watch, you could do worse. I confess to a failure to appreciate August Wilson's writing: this is pretty paint-by-the-numbers theater.

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