As a practicing Catholic, I do not love the title Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020).  It is as suggestive as it sounds, though if you begin and end with the implied sexuality, you would be missing the point.  I say this as a Christian and a historian.  The film is about the real-life blues singer in the title, born Gertrude Rainey (Viola Davis), but earning the nickname “Ma” for being considered the “Mother of the Blues.”  She was born in Georgia at the height of the Jim Crow South, a painful period in American History that saw the systematic denigration and segregation of African Americans.  We tend to think of this as mainly a Southern problem, but it affected the North, too.  It also makes up a large part of the psyches of all the characters involved, not just the eponymous one.  It is something I have studied as an academic, and bemoan as a follower of God.  What I am talking about here is racism, and it is something the Church expressly forbids.  Finally, it is something that must be confronted, and this is what this movie can help all of us do.

It would appear that people come from miles around to see Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, though that is not entirely a literal fact.  “Black Bottom” is also the name of one of her popular songs, one of the many she performs while touring through the South.  The thing to know about her shows is that they are all about her.  This fact is hard for her up-and-coming trumpet player, Levee Green (Chadwick Boseman), as seen when he tries to upstage her at a concert and she simply sings over his playing.  Regardless of any unwanted virtuosity, such is Ma’s success that she is asked to come to Chicago with her band in order to make a record.  The others arrive at the studio well before her, greeted by her manager, Mel Sturdyvant (Jonny Coyne), and Irvin (Jeremy Shamos), the studio engineer and manager.  While the band awaits Ma’s arrival, they are sent to a separate room to rehearse.  Levee has other ideas.  He first objects to the idea of going over all the same music that they all know by heart by this point.  It is the trombone player and nominal leader, Cutler (Colman Domingo), that tries to talk sense to Levee, eventually dismissing the young man as a fool.  Levee sees himself as a higher caliber musician than the others.  Not only does he have no need for practice, but he insists that his arrangement of the eponymous tune is better.  He feels emboldened in this because in addition to Mel wanting to record his version, Irvin is making overtures to purchase Levee’s music.  Eventually, the rest give in and play what Levee wants . . . until Ma gets to the studio.  What you need to understand about Ma is that she does not take any perceived aggravation from anyone, regardless of their skin color or social status.  Things are going to be done her way in every situation, and anyone who does not agree is in for either a withering glare or sharp words.  Hence, when she finally enters the building and discovers that the band is playing Levee’s music, she puts a decisive end to that despite his objections.  Because Mel cows to her, this cinches how the song is to be rendered.  Further, she has brought with her Sylvester (Dusan Brown), Ma’s nephew.  She intends for him to do an introduction, but he has one major problem: a stutter.  When the band raises their concerns, Ma accuses Levee of starting it, and tells them that Sylvester is going to do the introduction whether or not they like it.  Miraculously, after a few takes, Sylvester is able to say his line, only to have Irvin tell them that it did not get put to wax because the microphone is faulty.  This, along with not being provided Coca-Colas on this hot summer day (by the way, it is 1927, so no central air conditioning), sends Ma into a fury that has her throwing the band out of the studio and threatening to walk out.  During this interlude, Ma’s female companion, Dussie Mae (Taylour Paige), to whom she is attracted, sneaks downstairs to do inappropriate things with Levee.  Ma is aware of the affair between them, and it is another reason for her ire towards her trumpet player.  Eventually, they are able to get back into the booth and successfully make a record.  As they are finishing their set, Ma praises the play of her base player, Slow Drag (Michael Potts), as well as the others.  With Levee, however, she criticizes the extra notes with which he embellishes the song. When he talks back, she fires him.  This is only the beginning of the bad luck for Levee.  Earlier, he had talked about knowing how to play white people, a painful lesson he had learned from his father after his mother had been sexually assaulted by eight caucasian men.  Dad had smiled to their faces, but then came back and murdered four of them before they eventually captured him and lynched him.  This time, Irvin comes to Levee and tells the musician that they are not interested in recording his songs.  Levee presses Irvin, and all the sound engineer can offer is $5 per song, which Levee finds degrading.  He takes his frustration back to the practice room, exploding in anger when the philosophical piano player, Toledo (Glynn Turman), steps on Levee’s new shoes.  Not able to let this offense go, despite Toledo’s apologies, Levee brandishes a knife and stabs and kills Toledo.  The others look on in shock, as well as Levee, as Toledo dies in his arms.  Meanwhile, Ma drives away having signed the contract to sell her records, a look of disgust on her face for what she sees as prostituting her music.

Prostitution, pre-marital sex, drinking, marijuana smoking, and foul language are all things you will hear about in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.  As I discussed in the introduction, these are not the easiest of topics to discuss from a Catholic perspective.  There is an interesting discussion of such behavior between Levee and Toledo while the band is warming up.  Toledo is steeped in the ideas of the Harlem Renaissance, which posited that African Americans as a community needed to hold themselves to a higher standard.  Interestingly, he talks about how he lost his wife to Christianity.  He did not care for faith, but she found that something was missing from her life.  It is that missing element that often brings people to God, and it is a blessing no matter how it happens.  Levee, on the other hand, has a different way of looking at these matters.  He is perfectly comfortable, in his words, dealing with the devil, avowing eagerness to sell his soul to the enemy if it means a life of comfort.  Cutler preaches caution about such matters, and it is Levee’s continues blasphemy that precipitates a fist fight between the two.  What needs to be understood is that Levee’s behavior is a response to the powerlessness he feels in the society of the time.  The sad reality was that white America did not value African Americans as they should have been.  Catholic teaching says that all people, no matter the pigment of their skin, have value, and this is what Christianity says overall.  Unfortunately, this has not been applied equally over the centuries, which partially explains Levee’s anger with God.  What it does not do is justify his carousing.  Despite what Levee says, God understands our problems better than we can imagine.

Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom is a tough movie to watch if you are sensitive to racialized depictions and find history boring.  It is good to have the former sensitivity, and I would challenge you to be more open to the latter.  This is a long way of saying this is a recommendation.