Bessie

Bessie (2015) is an HBO music drama you can watch online on iFILM. Queen Latifah plays Bessie Smith, the singer whose rough, room-filling voice ruled the blues circuit through the Roaring Twenties.

The film follows her up from muddy vaudeville tents to packed theaters. A young Bessie learns the trade from headliner Ma Rainey (Mo'Nique), then overtakes her own mentor to become the best-paid Black performer of the era. Money, liquor, affairs with men and women, fistfights with hecklers and run-ins with record-label sharks — every win costs her plenty. Director Dee Rees refuses to sand down the rough edges; this Bessie is hot-tempered, bruised and stubborn.

Around Latifah you'll find Michael Kenneth Williams, Mike Epps and Oliver Platt. At the Emmys the picture walked off with the top television-movie prize. It's for viewers who want the real, prickly woman and her world of jazz and segregation, not a tidy legend. Stream Bessie (2015) online on iFILM.