"It would be an empty world without the blues."

2020

1h 33m

6.6(1272 votes)

Drama

Music

Overview

Tensions rise when the trailblazing Mother of the Blues and her band gather at a Chicago recording studio in 1927. Adapted from August Wilson's play.

Where to Watch

Stream

Links & Resources

Website IMDbView

Social & External

IMDb

Production Companies

The people behind it

Cast & crew

10 featured cast members

Starring

Viola Davis

Ma Rainey

Chadwick Boseman

Levee

Colman Domingo

Cutler

Glynn Turman

Toledo

Michael Potts

Slow Drag

Jeremy Shamos

Irvin

Jonny Coyne

Sturdyvant

Taylour Paige

Dussie Mae

Dusan Brown

Sylvester

Joshua Harto

Policeman

Creative team

Directed by: George C. Wolfe
Written by: Ruben Santiago-Hudson
Produced by: Todd Black
Dany Wolf

Similar Movies

6.0

2004

Alexander

Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians, he leads his army across the then known world, venturing farther than any westerner had ever gone, all the way to India.

Movie

6.7

2014

The Third One

After meeting in a chat room, Fede arrives at a down- town building to have an intimate encounter with a gay couple older than him. As the night unfolds, Fede has an intense and telling experience. The next morning finds him different, as if suddenly he had found a new possible way to love.

Movie

6.8

2024

Gondola

In the Georgian mountains, a cable car connects a village with a smaller town in the valley. Iva started working for the cable car as a conductor and is now in charge of handling the gondolas. While one gondola goes up to the village, the other goes down to the valley. Halfway down, the gondolas meet every half hour. This is exactly the moment when Iva and Nina, the conductor of the other gondola, meet each time. Where at the beginning only collegial greetings were exchanged, over time a flirtation develops. What follows is the big love and stress with the boss.

Movie

7.0

2006

The Lake House

When architect Alex Wyler moves into an unusual glass house on stilts over a lake, he discovers a note from the previous tenant in the mailbox--but no one's lived in the house for years. He replies and soon discovers that he's corresponding with a doctor named Kate Forster. Their correspondence, only through the 'magical' mailbox, turns romantic and their paths cross in unexpected ways, but when they try to truly connect, danger looms. They must try to unravel the mystery behind their extraordinary romance before it's too late.

Movie

6.1

1964

Viva Las Vegas

Lucky Jackson arrives in Las Vegas with his car literally in tow ready for the first Grand Prix — once he has the money for an engine. He gets the cash easily enough but mislays it when the pretty pool manageress takes his mind off things. It seems he'll lose both race and girl, problems complicated by rivalry from womanizing fellow racer Elmo Mancini.

Movie

5.7

2022

Peter von Kant

Peter von Kant, a successful, famous director, lives with his assistant Karl, whom he likes to mistreat and humiliate. Through the great actress Sidonie, he meets and falls in love with Amir, a handsome young man of modest means. He offers to share his apartment and help Amir break into the world of cinema. Several months later, Amir becomes a star. But as soon as he acquires fame, he breaks up with Peter, leaving him alone to face himself.

Movie

6.0

1968

Les Biches

A bored bisexual millionaire picks up a young destitute street artist and whisks her away to her villa in Saint Tropez. They meet a dashing local architect and both fall for him, setting in motion a ménage à trois of deception and betrayal.

Movie

6.9

1998

Velvet Goldmine

Almost a decade since larger-than-life glam-rock enigma Brian Slade disappeared from public eye, an investigative journalist is on assignment to uncover the truth behind his former idol.

Movie

4.3

1993

Boys' Shorts

In these sexy, fun and darkly entertaining boys shorts, we see the hilarious terrors of gay childhood, an Internet hook-up with unexpected motivation and what happens when you hate musicals. You might wonder if theres hope for a gay Lothario, and sometimes you'll see that when you go home, the end is just the beginning.

Movie

6.0

2019

Teen Spirit

A shy teenager living on the Isle of Wight dreams of pop stardom. With the help of an unlikely mentor, she enters a singing competition that will test her integrity, talent, and ambition.

Movie

1971

Kocúrkovo

A story in which the author mocks the Slovak petty bourgeoisie and denounces the denationalization of the gentry in the nineteenth century. Some problems such as patronage, bribery, and imitation of foreign models sound surprisingly simultaneous.

Movie

1.0

2021

Chasin'

Two men connect more than just sexually, when a Scruff hook-up has them meeting in a park in the middle of a hot summer's night.

Movie

7.0

2017

Just Charlie

Football star Charlie has the world at her feet. With a top club desperate to sign her, her future is seemingly mapped out. But the teenager sees only a nightmare. Raised as a boy, Charlie is torn between wanting to live up to her father's expectations and shedding this ill fitting skin.

Movie

4.6

2016

Nune

A 15-year-old Nune creates a fantasy world to escape from the pain of social rejection and bullying. But her archenemy's girlfriend-a model cheerleader with a bleeding heart-keeps luring her near.

Movie

5.6

2005

Last Days

The life and struggles of a notorious rock musician seeping into a pit of loneliness whose everyday life involves friends and family seeking financial aid and favors, inspired by rock music legend Kurt Cobain and his final hours.

Movie

7.5

2004

Ray

Born on a sharecropping plantation in Northern Florida, Ray Charles went blind at seven. Inspired by a fiercely independent mom who insisted he make his own way, He found his calling and his gift behind a piano keyboard. Touring across the Southern musical circuit, the soulful singer gained a reputation and then exploded with worldwide fame when he pioneered coupling gospel and country together.

Movie

1.0

2019

We're Not Here

When tragedy interrupts their secret seaside tryst, the prospect of going public brings two men to a standoff.

Movie

6.7

1997

Nowhere

In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.

Movie

2025

Violets

In 1945, beneath the oppressive shadow of the Francoist dictatorship, Juan, a university teacher assistant, meets Manuel during a chance encounter at night in a park. With their initial reservations, a complex love story unfolds between them, shaped by the turbulent political climate and the misunderstanding of those around them.

Movie

5.1

1994

The Cloud Door

A very clever parrot lives in a Hindu palace, surrounded by many beautiful girls, but the parrot escapes, and is trapped far from the palace. One day, when its new owner is sleeping, the bird convinces a young boy to open the cage door. In return, it shows the boy a secret passage to get into the palace.

Movie

Recommended Movies

7.1

2008

Cadillac Records

The story of sex, violence, race and rock and roll in 1950s Chicago, and the exciting but turbulent lives of some of America's musical legends, including Muddy Waters, Leonard Chess, Little Walter, Howlin' Wolf, Etta James and Chuck Berry.

Movie

6.4

2015

Bessie

The story of legendary blues performer, Bessie Smith, who rose to fame during the 1920s and '30s.

Movie

7.3

2019

Rocketman

The story of Elton John's life, from his years as a prodigy at the Royal Academy of Music through his influential and enduring musical partnership with Bernie Taupin.

Movie

7.7

2020

The Trial of the Chicago 7

What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned into a violent clash with the police. What followed was one of the most notorious trials in history.

Movie

6.2

2020

I Am Woman

In 1966, Helen Reddy landed in New York with her three year old daughter, a suitcase, and $230 in her pocket. Within weeks, she was broke. Within months, she was in love. Within five years, she was one of the biggest superstars of her time and an icon of the 1970s feminist movement who wrote a song which galvanized a generation of women to fight for change.

Movie

6.2

2017

A

A young alcoholic ambient musician locks himself in his apartment on a dangerous seven day bender as he attempts to finish his upcoming album.

Movie

6.5

2008

Hounddog

A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.

Movie

7.2

2017

Marshall

Thurgood Marshall, the first African-American Supreme Court Justice, battles through one of his career-defining cases.

Movie

8.4

2014

Whiplash

Under the direction of a ruthless instructor, a talented young drummer begins to pursue perfection at any cost, even his humanity.

Movie

7.1

1993

What's Love Got to Do with It

Singer Tina Turner rises to stardom while mustering the courage to break free from her abusive husband Ike.

Movie

6.6

2019

Beats

An agoraphobic hip-hop prodigy and a disgraced former music manager cross paths in Chicago’s South Side and help each other face demons of their pasts.

Movie

6.1

2004

De-Lovely

From Paris to Venice to Broadway to Hollywood, the lives of Cole Porter and his wife, Linda Lee Thomas were never less than glamorous and wildly unconventional. And though Cole's thirst for life strained their marriage, Linda never stopped being his muse, inspiring some of the greatest songs of the twentieth century.

Movie

6.5

2015

Born to Be Blue

Jazz legend Chet Baker finds love and redemption when he stars in a movie about his own troubled life to mount a comeback.

Movie

6.5

1990

Mo' Better Blues

Talented but self-centered trumpeter Bleek Gilliam is obsessed with his music and indecisiveness about his girlfriends Indigo and Clarke. But when he is forced to come to the aid of his manager and childhood friend, Bleek finds his world more fragile than he ever imagined.

Movie

5.8

1977

Valentino

The untimely death of silent screen star Rudolph Valentino prompts the many women in his past to reminisce about his troubled rise to superstardom.

Movie

7.3

1991

The Five Heartbeats

In the early 1960s, a quintet of hopeful, young African-American men form an amateur vocal group called The Five Heartbeats. After an initially rocky start, the group improves, turns pro, and rises to become a top flight music sensation. Along the way, however, the guys learn many hard lessons about the reality of the music industry.

Movie

7.0

1960

The Young One

A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.

Movie

6.8

2020

The Boys in the Band

At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.

Movie

6.8

2014

Get On Up

A chronicle of James Brown's rise from extreme poverty to become one of the most influential musicians in history.

Movie

6.2

2018

The Catcher Was a Spy

Former major league baseball player Moe Berg lives a double life working for the Office of Strategic Services in World War II Europe.

Movie