Besides some good acting and great visuals, especially the angled top-down view of the street with its dirt roads, storefronts and 1920s vehicles, MRBB is a largely plodding experience with much more emphasis on black oppression than the music itself.
Black people have suffered through slavery, mistreatment, discrimination and worse over the centuries, and the white man is the evil abuser of all these things, but we really don't need this message constantly being put across at the expense of action and continuity, which constantly goes on hold to re-indulge over and over again in black-vs-white conflicts, taking the movie itself absolutely nowhere.
Even as a purely biopic experience with music as the core entertainment factor, it would have been better than this mess with its constant delay tactics. What is the point of the movie, actually, and what story does it tell about Ma Rainey, other than she was obviously popular and talented but comes across as a perpetually grumpy and disgruntled woman?
This movie doesn't celebrate Ma Rainey as an artist or music in general, but keeps on pausing the musical action to emphasize how badly black people have been treated. It's a very sensitive subject, but when entertainment and storytelling take a backseat in favor of historic gripes it results in a joyless and unsatisfying experience.
Black people have suffered through slavery, mistreatment, discrimination and worse over the centuries, and the white man is the evil abuser of all these things, but we really don't need this message constantly being put across at the expense of action and continuity, which constantly goes on hold to re-indulge over and over again in black-vs-white conflicts, taking the movie itself absolutely nowhere.
Even as a purely biopic experience with music as the core entertainment factor, it would have been better than this mess with its constant delay tactics. What is the point of the movie, actually, and what story does it tell about Ma Rainey, other than she was obviously popular and talented but comes across as a perpetually grumpy and disgruntled woman?
This movie doesn't celebrate Ma Rainey as an artist or music in general, but keeps on pausing the musical action to emphasize how badly black people have been treated. It's a very sensitive subject, but when entertainment and storytelling take a backseat in favor of historic gripes it results in a joyless and unsatisfying experience.