The Mail on Sunday

FILM

- Matthew Bond

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

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.

The central character is an older, powerful woman (the reallife 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 (right) 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 blackrimme­d 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.

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