20 Best Netflix Original Movies
9. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)
Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a must-watch drama for the performances of Viola Davis and the late, great Chadwick Boseman alone, but rest assured that there's more to the film than the career-best actors bringing it to life.
The musical drama is only an hour and a half long, and tells the story of legendary blues singer Ma Rainey (Davis) and her band (including Boseman and Colman Domingo) as they try to survive a difficult recording session.
A powerful celebration of black music and a scathing takedown of those who set to exploit it for their own monetary gain, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is a searing biopic with too many high points to count.
Between Davis and Boseman's performances, the breakneck speed, and Ruben Santiago-Hudson's endlessly witty script, Ma Rainey is a film that hits all the right notes (pun intended). That it's Boseman's last movie performance just makes it all the more essential.