MA

Octavia Spencer     Diana Silvers     McKaley Miller     Juliette Lewis     Luke Evans

Corey Fogelmanis     Dante Brown     Gianni Paolo     Allison Janney     Tanyell Waivers

      Successfully blending chilling horror, high comedy, and serious drama with intelligence is a rarity in the world of filmdom.  But director Tate Taylor, writer Scotty Landes, and actress Octavia Spencer have together achieved just that in Ma.  It’s cleverly paced, so that the characters are a bit puzzling in the beginning—especially Spencer’s lead character Sue Ann—or they seem to fit a well-known trope that makes you think they will be predictable.  

     But not much is predictable in this horror-farce; it’s delightfully surprising almost every step of the way.  Even the ending.  As the story gets more and more complicated, one wonders how the filmmakers are going to resolve it, and they did a good job.  

     Maggie (Silvers) and her mother (Lewis) have moved back to the mother’s hometown after a sojourn in California.  Maggie is a teen and a bit apprehensive about the first day of school.  She first meets a shy classmate in a wheelchair and helpfully gives her a push when she needs it before entering her own class.  There, she is immediately welcomed by extrovert Haley (Miller) who treats her like an old friend, invites her to a party, and disparages her for declining in favor of going to a concert with her mother.  When the concert falls through, Maggie gets back on board for the party, and is immediately taken in by Haley and her three friends.  

     They’re a raucous high school group all ready to party and drink.  They have a ruse for getting drinks by asking a passerby outside a liquor store to buy them liquor.  This is where Sue Ann comes in and refuses at first to oblige them, lecturing them about drinking.  But just as she will any number of times, she later pulls the “Just kidding” routine, and even has them come to her basement to party rather than going to a favorite place for teens outside of town where they might get caught.  

     This is all great fun, with Sue Ann joining them and becoming close so that one teen slips and calls her “Ma”, which she seems to like.  But gradually, things start becoming weird.  The teens attempt to distance themselves, but they have no idea whom they are dealing with.  We the audience are privy to some of her actions, but even we won’t know the half of it yet.

     Octavia Spencer lives up to her award-winning performances, and this is likely to be one of her “best yet.”  She is new to the horror genre, and proves that she is well up to a starring role as a psychologically complex figure who displays a range of temperaments, antagonisms, and personal qualities.  Hopefully, she will be recognized at awards time for her brilliance in this role.  

     One of the intelligent features of Ma is its illustration of precursors in Sue Ann’s life that helped form her current personality, including when we get an inkling of Munchausen syndrome. It highlights the destructiveness of teasing, along with the obliviousness of active and passive participants to its cruelty.  So the movie is more than thrills, chills, and entertainment; it touches on elements of peer pressure, over-reactive parents, drug use, and taking action in an emergency.  It’s also about the sins of a father being visited upon his progeny.

     Not to be ignored are the numerous truly funny scenes that take place, sometimes during horrific incidents.  Just two prime examples are in addressing one character’s talkativeness, and the other in infusing a bestial character with sera meant for a dog. But also, Allison Janney’s Dr. Brooks, a veterinarian with an acerbic air who is Sue Ann’s boss is priceless; a perfect cameo.

Who would not want to see such an intelligent horror-comedy with a heavy dose of drama?

Grade:  A                                    By Donna R. Copeland

NERVE

Emma Roberts     Dave Franco     Miles Heizer     Juliette Lewis

          Reality games on television have spawned online gaming in the real world, where, as predictable, things can get out of control.  Vee’s (Roberts) best friend Sydney (Meade) nags and shames her into participating in the current craze, Nerve, a game in which “watchers” (i.e., voyeurs) devise dares for specific people.  Exasperated, Vee decides to give it a try, and it starts out mildly, where she is to kiss a stranger for five seconds.  With the support of her friend and fellow photographer Tommy (Heizer), she timidly approaches someone reading a book in a diner.  It’s Ian (Franco), who is so thrilled, he does a music-dance routine right in the diner, to warm applause. 

      But the way the game works, one “completion” brings on another dare—which the person can refuse, but when the chance to win big bucks is at stake, most gamers are sorely tempted, as is Vee, especially when Ian pleads with her.  The watchers have paired them up, so now all the dares are theirs to do together.  This leads on and on with higher and higher stakes and more and more dangerous dares. 

        To increase the complexity and heighten our interest (and nail biting), there are several behind-the-scenes intrigues involving Ian, a threatening figure named Ty (Machine Gun Kelly), and computer guru Tommy who is familiar with Darknet, so it becomes hard to know whom to trust.  It turns out that unseen forces are pulling the strings, making the marionettes dance to their tune.  This ends up in an ugly scene toward the end, with mob rule voting for the kill. 

        In the meantime, it seems a catfight is called for after Vee’s phone conversation with Ian about Sydney is overheard not only by Sydney, but also by everyone playing the game.  They have it out, and everyone wonders if their friendship will survive.  I could have done without this theme; it’s an unnecessary stereotype.

         Emma Roberts is developing into a fine actress, but still lacks the charisma she needs to be a major star.  Her performance just needs a little more spark to show more depth.  The same could be said about Dave Franco—although his song and dance routine was most impressive.  Again, he needs to have more roles that plumb his depth to make him a leading figure.  Supporting actors Miles Heizer and Emily Meade show talent that will serve them well.  Juliette Lewis’ cameo role as Vee’s mother is very well done.

        The book (Nerve by Jeanne Ryan) on which the movie is based makes a point about how online communication, being anonymous to some extent, is changing us.  Screenwriter Jessica Sharzer and directors Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman have taken the book and adapted it to make a suspenseful thriller that is likely to appeal to young people.  And for older people, it can be interesting and thought provoking in that it plays into current fears about the internet and how much data is collected about us.  It’s chilling to learn that whoever is behind the game of Nerve has access to all internet records about the players—their Facebook, their medical records legal records, everything.  In short, this film is scarier because it’s plausible.

A film illustrating some of the realities of reality games.

Grade:  C+                        By Donna R. Copeland