20 Best Movies Of 2020

Though some might find this adaptation of August Wilson's play a little too stage-y for its own good, it's easy enough to forgive those trappings given the powerhouse performances from Viola Davis and especially Chadwick Boseman.

Clocking in at a svelte 94 minutes, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a snappy, fast-moving drama focused on a particularly fraught recording session featuring legendary blues singer Ma Rainey (Davis) and her squabbling band.

At once a celebration of black music and an indictment of the white forces which sought to exploit it, this is a film by turns riotously witty and deeply unsettling, exemplified by Davis' takes-no-s**t singer and Boseman's fiercely determined trumpeter Levee.

Devastating though it is that this is Boseman's final movie performance, it is nevertheless a stunning role to bow out on, and one which has rightly netted him his fair share of awards attention already.