So-So - Ma
Have you ever watched someone who was out of shape run a short distance? Any conditioning at all and it wouldn’t be a challenge, but they manage to make it look like a challenge and barely complete it. That is Ma. It had all the opportunity in the world to tell a fun and interesting story and all it managed to do was barely cross the finish line. There were racial dynamics, class dynamics and so many other social strata right there to be considered, but the movie saunters past them as if blindfolded. The result is a movie that feels like it decided it was going to fail even before cameras started rolling.
Photo Courtesy of Universal Pictures
Sue Ann Ellington, or “Ma,” as she prefers to be called, lives in small town Ohio. One day, she comes across a group of teenagers who need her help to buy alcohol. She buys it and then proceeds to let them use her basement as a hangout. Over time, that hangout becomes something of an underground nightclub for all the local teens. “Welcome to Ma’s!”
Now, what those kids don’t know is that when Ma bought them alcohol, she quickly figured out that she actually had ties to their parents. She then proceeds to terrorize them—in small ways at first—but the situation ultimately takes on life-threatening stakes.
Photo Courtesy of Universal Pictures
The goal with a movie like Ma is to bend and twist reality in the most entertaining way possible. If done right, the story should be as twisted as the steel in a 20-car pileup. Ma succeeds there—this character is as demented as advertised. But where Ma falls short is in doing something with the particularities of its story. There was so much room for a subversive message or clever social commentary. Instead, it works out as a long version of its trailer. Kids need booze, lady buys booze, lady goes crazy.
It is unclear whether the filmmakers realized the implications of Octavia Spencer being Black. There are a few throw away lines, but no meaningful exploration of what that means. There is also no awareness of how some of the storylines can be read if you have even a modicum of racial context.
Photo Courtesy of Universal Pictures
They so clearly miss the mark here that one has to wonder why Spencer agreed to take on the role at all. She is an Academy Award winner playing a part more befitting of whoever Lifetime could afford to play Ma. This is so far below her immense talents that it can only be properly described as embarrassing—for all.
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