MA

US, 2019, 99 minutes, Colour.
Octavia Spencer, Juliette Lewis, Diana Silvers, Mc Kaley Miller, Corey Fogelmanis, Gianni Paolo, Dante Brown, Tanya Waivers, Luke Evans, Missy Pyle, Alison Janney.
Directed by Tate Taylor.

Ma sounds a kind of folksy ingratiating name for mother or a mother-figure. And, when we are introduced to her and find she is being played by that fine character actress, Octavia Spencer, we might expect something genial.

But then some will notice that this is a Blumhouse production and Blumhouse is best noted for thrillers, and a lot of horror stories. And, this is the direction in which Ma (both the character and the film) takes us. However, unlike many of the Blumhouse productions, there is nothing supernatural in this plot. This is a focus on the complexities of human nature.

Ma is Sue Ann, getting older, living at home, working as a vet (with Allison Janney as her boss in a rather low key cameo role). However, the initial focus is on a mother and daughter, Juliette Lewis and Diane Silver, the mother returning to the town where she grew up. She gets a job in a casino. The daughter goes to school where she encounters a group of friendly students (who, surprisingly, remain her friends throughout the film despite all the ups and downs, especially the final downs).

However, they have a touch of the rebellion in them and want to buy some alcohol and, encountering Ma walking a dog, they enlist her help. Not only does she help, but she invites them to the basement of her house where they can party. They take up the invitation. Ma is exhilarated and enters more and more into the partying.

Of course, it all becomes quite complex. There are flashbacks to Sue Ann when she was at school and bullied. There is the discovery that she has a daughter whom she protects. And, some of the parent generation in the present worth the bullies from the past.

As the behaviour becomes more and more sinister, and Ma is threatened, the screenplay moves towards some violence and cruelty, some mad and deadly manifestations.

It is interesting to watch Octavia Spencer as Sue Ann, genially dealing with the youngsters, but becoming more and more possessive, even deranged.

Not everybody’s choice for entertainment, but in its way, drawing us in.

1. The title? Expectations? Sue and, her befriending the teenagers, giving them hospitality, enjoying their company, their calling her Ma? The revelation about her own daughter and her treatment of her? Possessive?

2. The story about a small town, the teenage generation, school, drinking, friendships? Background families? The older generation and their links? Moving into a greater sense of menace, violence?

3. The atmosphere of the town, small, Erica and Maggie moving in, Erica and her job at the casino, the style of the casino? Maggie, school, making friends, the outings, the liquor shop, the vets, Ma’s Place, the cluttered basement, the austere upstairs? The musical score?

4. Erica, her background in the town, the failed marriage, returning with Maggie, her job at the casino, Stu and his help, the encounter with Ben and Mercedes? Her concern about Maggie? Maggie and her age, loyal to her mother, at school, Haley and the invitation, the challenge to buy the liquor, the encounter with Ma, accepting her hospitality, the parties and the basement? The attraction towards Andy? The back stories? Her deceiving her mother, her mother and her demands?

5. Sue Ann, working at the vet, reprimanded by the boss, seemingly absent-minded, walking the dog, buying the liquor, bonding with the young people, offering the basement, her becoming involved in the parties, dancing, the drinking? Her growing dependence on the young people? The stealing of the jewellery? Further making demands, Haley and her cutting the group off from Ma? Ma and the technology, the phones, researching each of the teenagers?

6. The flashbacks, Sue Ann at school, glasses, persecuted and ridiculed? The attachment to Ben? Her phoning Ben about Andy and the drinking? (And the police arriving and letting them off?) Ben at the vet, making the appointment with Sue Ann, the hotel, the confrontation and his warning her off? Ben and his relationship with Mercedes, the sex, at the casino? His deceased wife, his son?

7. Genie, at school, shy, friendship with the teenagers? Her mother keeping her at home, her illness, upstairs? Her mother possessive and demanding? Her wanting to go downstairs?

8. The buildup to the confrontation? The young people arriving, Sue Ann barring the exit? Maggie going to the basement? Sue Ann, madness, the previous making the boy strip naked, sewing Haley’s lips, stabbing Andy, painting Dante white? Her abduction of Ben, naked on the bed, threatening the castration?

9. Erica, her concern, Stu and his help? Going to rescue Maggie? Genie coming down, attacking her mother? The rescue? The fire, Sue Ann going upstairs, lying with Ben? The conflagration?