Ma Rainey knows her worth. As played by Viola Davis in the screen adaptation of August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Ma is a confident truth-teller who has experienced a lot, and learned even more. The “Mother of the Blues” is an extraordinary songstress and performer, and isn’t about to let anyone take advantage of her. Davis once again turns in a jaw-dropping performance in this heartbreakingly resonant slice-of-life story.

In Chicago 1927, during the height of the Great Migration, Ma is recording an album with her faithful band and new trumpet player, Levee (the late Chadwick Boseman). Levee is talented and ambitious, and keeps trying to steal Ma’s spotlight — and her girlfriend (Taylour Paige). Ma’s manager and the head of the recording studio, both white, repeatedly pull bullshit moves: decreasing her pay, dictating the songs she records, ignoring her needs. But Ma holds firm. She knows her music is good, and that people want to hear it. If the white music establishment wants her, they’re going to have to bend to her will. It’s a pleasure to see Ma, a Black woman in a world controlled by whites, holding all the cards.

Of course, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is too sensitive to Black American history to merely bask in the joy of one Black person’s success. The film is unflinchingly honest about our country’s habit of exploiting Black labor and creativity for white profit. The film takes place in the ’20s but its examination of white supremacy in the arts and the wider world feels very timely, indeed.

Clear-eyed as it is about racism and America’s past (and present), “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is frequently uplifting. The musical performances are exhilarating and the chemistry between the bandmates, particularly Davis and Colman Domingo, is lived-in and warm. And, again, the focus on Ma, a queer Black woman with no doubts about herself or her life, is a pure delight.

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is now available on Netflix.