Bessie

Bessie is a 2015 drama about the blues singer Bessie Smith, tracing her rise from a struggling young performer to one of the most successful recording artists of the 1920s and a lasting figure in American music. Her career takes off as she records songs including "St. Louis Blues," but her turbulent private life casts a shadow over her success, and she contends with racism and violence along the way. Queen Latifah plays Smith, with Mo'Nique as Ma Rainey, Mike Epps as Richard, Tika Sumpter as Lucille, Michael Kenneth Williams as Jack Gee, and Charles S. Dutton as William "Pa" Rainey.

Dee Rees directed the film and wrote the screenplay with Bettina Gilois and Christopher Cleveland. It was produced by Ron Schmidt for The Zanuck Company, HBO Films and Flavor Unit Entertainment, and runs 107 minutes. It followed Rees's debut Pariah (2011), her first feature, and came before Mudbound (2017) and The Last Thing He Wanted (2020), the third and fourth films she directed.

The film received mixed audience responses: on IMDb it holds 6.7 out of 10 from around 5,100 votes, and on TMDB it has 6.4 out of 10 from 133 votes. Those figures point to a modest, generally positive reception rather than a strongly divided one, though the much smaller TMDB sample is harder to read.