Pop Screen’s Oscar month goes back to, er, 2021 with the film widely predicted to win Chadwick Boseman a posthumous Oscar – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Less a biopic of the titular blues singer and more a drama about temptation and (often racial) exploitation adapted from August Wilson’s play, it nevertheless features a powerhouse, Oscar-nominated turn from Viola Davis as Ma Rainey.
This week, Ewan Gleadow from Cult Following returns to argue the merits and demerits of the film’s obsessive fidelity to Wilson’s source, the difficulties of pitching movies about jazz and blues to a modern audience and Denzel Washington’s project to bring Wilson’s ‘Pittsburgh Cycle’ to the screen. We also take a quick look at this year’s Oscar nominees, discuss the unexpected film Ewan’s local multiplex preferred to Licorice Pizza, and ask why people nowadays like pop stars who are quite dull.
If you enjoy hearing people get all of that out of one reasonably short movie, you can donate to our Patreon and get a monthly bonus episode of Pop Screen, as well as unrestricted access to our other film podcast Directors Uncut, Graham’s Doctor Who reviews and more. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more details.
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Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
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