In Ma Rainey when Chadwick tells the story of his father he does a 3-4 minute monologue just telling the story, while the camera never leaves the room he and the band are in. Absolutely feels like watching a play.

On the other hand - in One Night in Miami when Malcolm tells the story of Sam's concert in Boston they cut from the hotel to actually show what happened at the concert, with the camera showing both he and Sam's perspective. THAT makes it feel like a film, instead of just hearing the story told to the other characters in the hotel room.

In both examples the actor gets a monologue moment, but in Ma Rainey the play "feeling" takes away from the impact. In One Night in Miami they had to put in some work to make that concert scene happen - all those extras in the crowd, the band up on stage showing Jackie Wilson's performance, etc...but it's definitely worth it.


>But Ma Rainey has multiple points in it where you can tell
>it's just lifting the stage direction from the play, and when
>you're sitting in a theater with the lighting and the
>atmosphere and the sound it'd feel just right, but on the
>small screen you're left wondering why this character or that
>character is downplaying this or that moment. It's harder to
>feel their resignation to the circumstances with that
>separation.