Ma
Director: Tate Taylor
Writer: Scotty Landes
Cast: Octavia Spencer, Diana Silvers, Juliette Lewis, McKaley Miller, Corey Fogelmanis, Gianni Paolo, Dante Brown, Tanyell Waivers, Allison Janney, Missi Pyle, Luke Evans
Seen on: 3./4.3.2025

Content Note: sexualized violence, bullying

Plot:
Maggie (Diana Silvers) and her mother Erica (Juliette Lewis) moved back to the town that Erica grew up in. Maggie doesn’t know anybody there and tries to fit in with the local teens. She hits it off with Haley (McKaley Miller), Darrell (Dante Brown), Chaz (Gianni Paolo), and Andy (Corey Fogelmanis). Their quest for a good time leads them to ask Sue Ann (Octavia Spencer) to buy alcohol for them. Sue Ann agrees and even goes a step further, offering them her basement as a party location. Thinking they have hit the jackpot, the teens accept, only to find that Sue Ann – who they start calling Ma – is not willing to leave them alone anymore.

Ma could have been interesting, but unfortunately whenever it nears anything that has potential, it is quick to drop that line of thought and to turn to the blandest of tropes instead.

Ma works for much longer than it should, simply because it has Octavia Spencer who does more with the material than seems humanly possible. Because the script seems to not care about any of its characters in the slightest. Sue Ann is a caricature, the teens are barely distinguishable from one another and Sue Ann’s backstory doesn’t really acknowledge its trauma except use it as an explanation for her actions.

Unfortunately, that explanation is flimsy. In fact, nothing of the film makes much sense at all. For that, it would have to have even the slightest modicum of a decent pacing. It does not. The film develops in sudden bursts and sudden stops, with no sense of narrative rhythm that makes everything feel wrong – even when you find a rational explanation – because it never seems to happen at the right time.

Honestly, with a title such as Ma – and the way Sue Ann looks – I was thinking the film might dig into the mammy stereotype and dismantle it. Now that would have been interesting. But the film opts instead for Sue Ann trying to get back something of her own teenage years that was forcibly taken from her, but without ever really acknowledging her vulnerability and sadness underneath the schlocky rage and violence that came from it. (To be fair, I doubt that a film written and directed by white dudes would be the right place to tackle the topic anyway.)

In short, Ma is all over the place and never really goes anywhere making it an unsatisfying mess.

Summarizing: not good.