Bessie (2015)

Beautiful, moving film.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Blistering performances.

Very traumatic. But it is a typical life of a rich star. Hard childhood, rich life, ends up with nothing. Only emotions and a lot of experience. Nothing new. I still loved it because of the acting. Latifah is my long time loved actress and it was new to see her like this. Seeing my favorite actress forming a char like this tells me she thought it is worth to make it. We can learn from it. I prefer films with a lot emotions or actions. It has both. There was only one scene where I wanted to speed up things but it was worth to watch it. And the music and singing is a great collection they really make the the movie feels like back in time. The only thing I miss: I could not get to know the other characters. They could have made the movie a bit longer with more scenes with other people's life. But my final words: loved it! It is a real romantic movie. And I do not mean because of the relationships but because of the events too.

Great performances and cinematography but just disappointing it just did not capture me. That's no criticism of the performances they were great.....it just misses the mark. Firstly make your own mind up but for me knowing a bit about her life story it seems to lack any emotion. There's a coldness to it, kind of this happened then this happened. In one scene where Bessie faces her sister it seems just flashed through. Considering the history between them it should have been a much more powerful moment. The movie does not draw the viewer in. In my opinion it lacks any depth.I guess the script writing is what's wrong but am no expert it just misses the mark. Great performance by QL. Not something I would think about watching again.

Bessie is a nicely produced flick about 'Bessie Smith the singer' with a little suggestion of 'Bessie Smith the person' sprinkled throughout the story. At movies end you don't feel you know something about her outside of her remarkable singing.There are scenes of her rise from rags to riches and the family she tries to make but that's all you get through brief scenes and then it's back to her as a singer.This isn't a bad movie, it's entertaining and Queen Latifah pulls out all the stops as Bessie the singer. But the ending leaves you pretty much where you were when you started the movie as far as Bessie the person is portrayed.

A movie about some aspect of Bessie Smith's life is decades overdue, considering the broad cultural shadow she casts. A few episodes of her tumultuous life explored in depth would resonate, but like too many biopics, this one suffers from the creators' attempt to tell the whole story, or most it, and the results are mechanical, predictable and force-fitted into various agendas. Most biopic makers stumble upon these rocks. Their task is difficult. From the start of "Bessie" we are told five things over and over: Bessie was haunted throughout her life by memories of the mother she lost as a child. Bessie had lesbian dalliances. Bessie loved to drink straight gin, preferably right out of the bootlegger's glass jar. Bessie had a violent temper. Bessie was a fiercely independent, take-charge kind of gal. But the main thing about Bessie that is presented only sporadically and by rote is her distinctive singing and how it came to be that way. Queen Latifah, who would seem to be a fine choice for this role, does suggest Smith in girth and even in facial features, but despite a strong voice which she tries to adapt to the Smith groove, she never makes us feel the rafters rising as the Smith legend tells us. The only time she approaches the true Smith sound is near the end when hard living had begun to ravage her vocal chords. And in the early scenes Latifah, given her age and physicality, cannot possibly persuade us that she is a young, unformed artist-to-be.The attempt to demonstrate how she gradually upstaged her mentor, Ma Rainey (played to the hilt by Mo'Nique), is episodic and sketchy, not organic or dramatic; the same goes for the re-enactments of Smith's altercations with members of the high-toned Manhattan art scene in the 1920s and early 1930s. Some good substance is made of her volatile love affairs with men (Michael Kenneth Williams and Mike Epps). But her mid-career slump is presented as with no explanation or cause, other than perhaps the Great Depression. SPOILER ALERT: Her tragic death (a potential movie in itself) is entirely absent, as "Bessie" ends in mid-air, or mid- road, as we are left with her musings about where she will go next after a picnic with her former bootlegger.So, a point has been scored for Bessie Smith. It opens a conversation. But more is needed.