Series Details & Credits
| HBO | Release Date: May 16, 2015 |
Summary:
The Dee Rees film dramatizes the rise to fame for blues singer Bessie Smith (Queen Latifah).
Genre(s):
Drama, Movie/Mini-Series, Music
Recent Episodes
- No episode information is currently available for this season
Positive:
18
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
May 15, 2015
May 15, 2015
May 14, 2015
Season 1 Review:
What's missing, unfortunately, is any attempt to explain that music--to tell us what made Smith stand out, to examine her impact on other singers, and to give us a sense of the extent of her popularity. And yet, while those flaws are not unimportant, they're also unlikely to be what you'll remember most. No, that will be Latifah, glowing with pleasure after a song well sung, screaming with agony after another betrayal, risking and exposing everything as a performer. She's a star, born yet again.
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May 15, 2015
Season 1 Review:
Bessie, with a gorgeous soundtrack performed largely by Latifah, tells this story in far less simplistic fashion. Rees dramatizes Smith’s demons in powerful, sometimes chaotic fashion, jumping back in time to show her as an abused child and depicting her adult life in vignettes that don’t always flow together.
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May 18, 2015
May 13, 2015
Season 1 Review:
The performances are splendid throughout, starting with Latifah.... Coupled with the plentiful music, those assets largely overcome the fact that the movie itself is somewhat scattered, narratively speaking, not so much ending as simply covering different aspects of Smith’s colorful life before running out of time.
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May 14, 2015
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Season 1
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Season 1 Overview
Air Date: May 16, 2015
- No episode information is currently available for this season
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Season 1 Overview