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

PROFESSOR MARSTON AND THE WONDER WOMEN

Luke Evans     Rebecca Hall     Bella Heath     Connie Britton     J. J. Field

     Professor William Moulton Marston was an unusual figure in the 1930’s; he was a psychologist, inventor (one product being the forerunner of the current lie detector test), author of books on psychology, and a comic book writer.  He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard, earning a B.A., L.L.B., and Ph.D., then went on to further his education at American University, Tufts, and Universal Studios in California.  The fact that he created the super-hero(ine) Wonder Woman may seem odd, but she is based on his belief in the moral superiority of women, given that men (as he saw it) are more anarchic and violent.  To him, peace in the world rested on the leadership of women whose allure of love would lead men into submission to loving authority.  He said, “The only hope for civilization is the greater freedom, development and equality of women in all fields of human activity…Frankly, Wonder Woman is psychological propaganda for the new type of woman who should, I believe, rule the world” (Jill Lepore, “The Last Amazon:  Wonder Woman Returns”, The New Yorker, 9/22/14).  Bravo!

     Marston (played by Evans) was significantly influenced by the principles of the suffragette movement at the time and by his wife, Elizabeth (Hall), and Olive Byrne (Heath), a niece of the suffragette Margaret Sanger.  Elizabeth is very frustrated, because she is not given tenure at Mt. Holyoke (sister school of male only Harvard), simply because she is female.  When Olive comes to work in the Marston’s laboratory, it is apparent that Marston is attracted to her as well as to his wife, and although Elizabeth is ambivalent at first, they eventually enter into a three-way personal relationship.  

      The film focuses primarily on this period of time, with the three main characters working through the complex arrangement.  Although some actual biographical elements are included—such as Marston’s dismissal from academic appointments, encouraging him to pursue comics with Universal Studios—and Elizabeth supporting the family financially, while Olive becomes their four children’s caretaker, we see mostly the relationships among the three main characters.

     Cuts are frequently made of Marston facing some kind of “decency committee” headed by a children’s author, Josette Frank (played by Connie Brittain), who is inserted into the drama by the filmmakers to represent those who objected vociferously to aspects of the Wonder Woman image—bondage, sexual allure, attire, large breasts, etc.  These sessions are extremely frustrating for Marston who uses reason and logic that don’t come through to a religious woman with fundamental beliefs.  She was not alone, however, in that society in general forced the trio to keep their true relationships quiet.

    This would be my primary criticism of the film—too much of a focus on sexual nonconformity with less emphasis on the production of the Wonder Woman comic books and Marston’s work with Max Gaines and his two companies that would eventually merge to form DC Comics.  On its fiftieth anniversary, DC Comics named Marston one of the Fifty Who Made DC Great.  This would have been much more interesting to me than so much emphasis on unconventional relationships that should remain personal.  It was gratifying, however, to see how the arrangements among the three were discussed beforehand, with all three voicing their opinions.

      Luke Evans embodies the complexities of the Marston personality very well, and the two women are a match for him in this regard, especially Rebecca Hall.  She keeps the dialog interesting with her ideas and snappy with her humor.

An unconventional background story showing how the superheroine Wonder Woman was carefully considered and based on sound principles.

Grade:  B                                    By Donna R. Copeland

THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN

Emily Blunt     Haley Bennett     Justin Theroux     Rebecca Ferguson    

Luke Evans     Allison Janney     Edgar Ramirez     Lisa Kudrow

          We meet Rachel (Blunt) on the train, see her scribbling and drawing on a pad, and listen to what is going on in her head.  She is clearly upset and depressed as she sips on a gin drink and weaves stories about the people she sees through the windows of houses.  Some are mixed in with her own memories, for she used to live in that neighborhood with her ex-husband Tom (Theroux).  Tom is married to Anna (Ferguson) now, and they have a child.  But a couple she sees in another house captures her imagination and her wish for a perfect marriage.  She has decided they are very happy together, an ideal couple—until she sees the woman in the arms of another man on the porch one morning.  She is furious with the woman, who reminds Rachel that her own husband left her for another woman.

       We learn that Megan (Bennett) and Scott (Evans) are their names, which Rachel discovers when she reads in the newspaper that the woman is missing.  Imaginative Rachel weaves a story around what she has seen, and without distinguishing between her fantasies and reality, she inserts herself into the case by going to visit Scott and telling him that she saw Megan with another man one morning.  Furthermore, she claims that she knew Megan personally.

      The film is good in this aspect of illustrating how memory is constructive, not photographic, and that many times, humans are prone to over-interpret what they see when they don’t have all the facts.  It’s of value as well to see how misleading and destructive it can be for someone with the best of intentions to muddy the waters when they assert themselves into situations where they don’t belong.

          The Girl on the Train is a mystery and a thriller based on the popular Paula Hawkins novel.  It’s easy to see how it would attract filmmakers like Tate Taylor, the director, (and a hungry public as well) with its intrigue, mystery, scandal, and chameleon-like characters.  The problem, is to some extent, a function of its success, in that the characters and plot stretch credulity.  The book (which I’ve read) and the film would benefit from toning down a bit.  For instance, brutal scenes that take place in a populated area near a tunnel with a fair amount of pedestrian traffic are apparently not observed by anyone else.

          On the positive side, the cast is very good, especially the star Emily Blunt in her ability to capture the complex Rachel, an imaginative alcoholic who appears spacey and impulsive much of the time, but can be smart and show genuine love and caring.  Haley Bennett as the mercurial Megan lives up to her recent reputation for playing sexy, strong, beautiful women.  Cameo roles by Allison Janney and Lisa Kudrow attest to their strengths in pungent character roles.  Men are not regarded too kindly in this movie, but Justin Theroux, Edgar Ramirez, and Luke Evans do justice to their roles and show strength behind their weak characters. 

         I have to complain once again about psychiatrists and other professional counselors being portrayed by Hollywood unrealistically in touching and hugging their patients and seeing them in their homes.  Mental Health professionals are all trained in how to deal with romantic pulls and patients appearing at our doors without an appointment—something not dealt with realistically in this film.

         This is a film that will appeal to those who enjoy being pulled into a web of intrigue and excitement and don’t mind a bit of implausibility or being “played” by the novelist/filmmakers.

What is seen from a train may be enhanced by a vivid imagination.

Grade:  C                                    By Donna R. Copeland