Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom starring Viola Davis is the right film at the right time, and it’s definitely going to be a player come awards season
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Cert: 15, 1hr 34mins Out now in cinemas; Netflix from Dec 18
Happiest Season
Cert: 12, 1hr 42mins Out now in cinemas and on demand
Rating: 
For reasons we can all appreciate, the major film awards next year have already been significantly postponed, with both the Baftas and the Oscars now taking place in April, two months later than usual.
For similar reasons, the big films hoping to be contenders for those awards have also been slower to be released. But as cinemas reopen, they are finally beginning to arrive, led by Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Based on August Wilson’s 1982 play, it’s the perfect picture for a rightly penitent film industry desperate to be seen as more inclusive.
It does feature two standout, potentially award-winning performances – one from Viola Davis (above) as the intimidating Ma Rainey, the other from the late Chadwick Boseman
The central character is an older, powerful woman (the real-life Ma Rainey was known as ‘the mother of the blues’), the cast is predominantly black and – set in the Chicago of 1927 – it certainly speaks to the long history of the black American experience.
It never, however, quite shakes off its stage origins, with most of the action taking place in two rooms, a recording studio and a rehearsal room.
But it does feature two standout, potentially award-winning performances – one from Viola Davis as the intimidating and indomitable Ma Rainey, the other from the late Chadwick Boseman, whose charismatic turn as the ambitious young trumpeter Levee will tragically be his last.
Growing tensions lie at the film’s heart. Ma – a growling, sweating presence with rouged cheeks, painted-on eyebrows and black-rimmed eyes – is late for their recording session and definitely not to be rushed.
Then there’s the fact that Levee wants to use his new, more upbeat arrangement of their best-known number, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom rather than the traditional, slower blues version.
He also wants to show some songs he’s written to the white owners of the recording studios.
‘People want something they can dance to,’ he enthuses, his mind now distracted by the presence of Ma’s very pretty ‘niece’ (Taylour Paige). The stage has definitely been set.
The acting is uniformly strong and Davis makes Ma the most extraordinary and powerful screen presence, but it doesn’t all work. There doesn’t seem quite enough plot to support a modern feature film, one particular visual metaphor ends up feeling laboured and there’s more than a touch of melodrama too.
But it’s the right film and the right time, and it’s definitely going to be a player come awards season.
Not so, Happiest Season, which has an interesting and touching story at its heart but keeps losing it amid the slapstick and schmaltz. Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis play a lesbian couple with two big differences.
Abby hates Christmas, while Harper loves it. More importantly, Abby is open about her sexuality, but Harper has yet to come out to her parents.
So when Harper invites Abby home for Christmas, trouble and confusion loom. Can they possibly get through Christmas without Harper’s big secret spilling out?
There are some nice moments, but for all the hard work done by writer-director Clea DuVall, it’s not quite enough to make this essential seasonal viewing.