海角大神

Filmed plays are often unjustly denigrated for being 鈥渦ncinematic.鈥� 鈥淢a Rainey鈥檚 Black Bottom,鈥� the movie adaptation of the 1984 August Wilson play,聽is a triumphant example of just how good a filmed play can be if both the play and the acting are first rate.聽A film director doesn鈥檛 have to shoot the works to hold an audience. If the drama is galvanizing enough, that鈥檚 all you need. And what we have here is more than enough:聽Viola Davis in one of her greatest performances, and the late Chadwick Boseman in his final and most powerful appearance.

Wilson鈥檚 play was his first to make it to Broadway and is an early entry in what became known as his 鈥淧ittsburgh Cycle鈥� of 10 plays (and the only one not set in Pittsburgh) about Black Americans in the 20th century. As directed by George C. Wolfe and adapted by screenwriter Ruben Santiago-Hudson, it takes place in a Chicago recording studio over the course of a day, and, except for a few exterior shots of the streets outside, that鈥檚 where the action remains.

The time is 1927, and the centerpiece of the drama is the legendary 鈥淢other of the Blues鈥� Gertrude 鈥淢a鈥� Rainey, with her gold-capped teeth, whom we first see in flashback wailing away in a tent show in the Deep South, and then later, in the prime of her career, spotlighted in a flashy club.

Her band musicians, waiting on her in that Chicago studio to cut a record, take up much of the early action. Rainey is late to the session, but the musicians, with their easygoing bonhomie, are unfazed. In its own freeform way, their cagey, chuckling rapport resembles a bluesy jam session without the music. The music is in the badinage.

The men constitute a motley crew. The aged, aptly named Slow Drag (Michael Potts) is the bass player; the world weary, philosophic Toledo (Glynn Turman) is the piano player; Cutler (Colman Domingo) is the trombonist and unofficial leader of the troupe. All of these roles are beautifully acted.

And then there鈥檚 Levee (Boseman), the cocky, furiously ambitious trumpet player, who makes his entrance with a pair of gold-colored shoes. Levee is all about style, about showing off, and he doesn鈥檛 put much store in the life lessons of his older mates. He sees them as the past, while he represents the future. And the future for Levee is a music that moves away from the slow rhythms and blues roots of Ma Rainey and her generation. That鈥檚 not music you can dance to. He wants to be his own boss, lead his own band, make his own music, record his own records. This, of course, puts him in direct conflict with Rainey, when she shows up for the session. She will only do things her way, and Levee, who even makes a play for Rainey鈥檚 chorus girl flame (Taylour Paige), represents something that must be eradicated.

The greatness of Boseman鈥檚 performance is that he simultaneously shows us Levee鈥檚 youthful brashness and the pain and rage smoldering beneath it. As young as he is, Levee has a full history of racist family horrors to unfold, and when he finally does so, the screen all but trembles in the telling. Wilson is a champion at fashioning monologues that have the force of operatic arias, and Boseman takes flight with them.

Davis fully matches Boseman鈥檚 intensity. She helps us see how the singer鈥檚 almost frightening willfulness serves a higher ambition. Ma Rainey wants to control not only her music but her life 鈥� which are much the same thing.

She knows that the white music establishment only tolerates her because of the money she brings in. 鈥淭hey don鈥檛 care nothing about me,鈥� she says at one point. 鈥淎ll they care about is my voice.鈥� A shrewd businesswoman, she wants what鈥檚 coming to her. She鈥檚 smart enough, and cynical enough, to know that her fame won鈥檛 last forever. But thanks to Wilson and Davis, Rainey鈥檚 spirit and sorrows will continue to resonate.

Peter Rainer is the Monitor鈥檚 film critic. 鈥淢a Rainey鈥檚 Black Bottom鈥� debuts on Netflix on Dec. 18.聽