Bessie Imbues Some Unique Details Into The Music Biopic Genre

Bessie Smith was a one-of-a-kind music legend. Born in Chattanooga, Tennesse, Smith was raised in a troubled household and struggled to find steady work as a singer. A chance to work Ma Rainey (Mo'Nique), however, gives Bessie Smith the breakthrough she needs. Soon, Smith is her own solo act and one that's becoming quite famous. As the years go by, the highs for Bessie Smith are high but the lows, including her worst struggles with addiction, those sink very deep. All the while, Smith also grapples with her inability to really emotionally connect with others as well las torment from the past that's informing her iconic blues music.

Pack Your Things And Go On A Hilarious Girls Trip

Girls Trip is the sort of movie that very much knows where its best assets are. It recognizes right off the bat that there's more humor and heart to be generated from making its lead four characters true blue friends instead of being individuals who are constantly at each other throats (though there is conflict between two of the members of the group to be sure), for instance. It also clearly knows that it's got plenty of strong performers filling out the lead roles and letting the plot mainly concern the characters caring for one another would be a better way to properly utilize said talents instead of having the four protagonists solely go through contrived conflicts with one another.

Plenty Of Well-Done Musical Numbers Pop Up In Chicago, Though, Sadly, There's No Pizza

We've had plenty of "ladies-in-prison" movies in the history of cinema, to the point that it's become its own subgenre so ubiquitous it inspired a fake trailer on Grindhouse. Such a concept has endured so much that it's even eeked over into television with Orange Is The New Black being a hugely popular show for four years now. Despite the huge amount of content fixated on the idea of women getting into shenanigans in prison, I doubt any other piece of "ladies-in-prison" pop culture is quite like the 2002 Rob Marshall movie Chicago, which is based on a hugely popular and long-running Broadway musical of the same name.