Ma stars Octavia Spencer as the title character, a woman with a dark past who repeatedly houses parties for a group of teenagers, led by Maggie (Diana Silvers), and is seen as cool and popular, until her behavior becomes more erratic and violent. The movie is very much a B-movie, in the vein of another film released earlier this year, Greta, which also focused on an older woman who acted obsessively towards a younger woman with some totally insane results. However, unlike Greta, this film doesn’t take things to the extreme, crazy heights that it could have.
The main reason why this movie works at all is thanks to Octavia Spencer, in what is a complete change of pace for her. The film establishes very early on that there’s more to her than meets the eye, and she relishes in just how crazy her character is in every moment she’s on screen. She’s clearly having a blast with this role and much of the film’s zany, over-the-top moments stem from her.
However, whenever Spencer’s not on screen, the movie tends to suffer. Diana Silvers does a solid job as Maggie, and is a likable enough protagonist thanks to her natural energy, turning out to be the only other cast member besides Spencer who’s effectively used. On the downside, her character does suffer from being more reactionary than anything, not really being developed other than the fact that she’s a victim of Ma’s obsession. However, what helps make her engaging to follow is the fact that she’s clearly the only one of the main teenage group who has any common sense.
Ma tends to scare all the teenagers at various points right from the start, and they find themselves in consistently awkward situations with her even before her behavior begins getting out of control. Yet, they continue to hang around her anyway, and seem to constantly find a new way to justify her behavior or make sense of why they would come back to her house, despite multiple extended scenes in which they all proclaim that they don’t want to be around her.
No one really comes across as a believable character after a while, as any sensible human being would have cut her off way before they do. And even when they notice how unhealthy her obsession is, they refuse to do anything such as look into a restraining order. They block her number, but when she gets a new one and continues with the extremely repetitive phone calls, they tend to not do anything about it, and let themselves get easily manipulated right back into Ma’s world.
And while Spencer’s performance is wonderfully over-the-top and enjoyable to watch, the premise itself tends to not be as much. In fact, it feels like the movie starts building towards something more bombastic, but actually keeps things rather restrained, especially for nearly all of its second act. It tapers off after about an hour or so in, and mostly engages in somewhat aggressive conversations, while one of the teenagers continues to express their concerns about Ma’s behavior.
Things don’t pick back up until the final act, and while it appears at multiple points like the movie is about to get into some real exploitation-style gore and violence, it shows part of it off-screen, only cutting back after a certain act has been performed, or only letting something go on for just a few seconds. Despite it being enjoyable to watch, it’s never heightened from anything that’s seen in the first act, and mostly consists of more of the same, with just a few minor alterations.
On top of that, the movie winds up having this odd morality issue that involves an anti-bullying message. It involves flashback scenes and tries to turn previously likable people into unlikable and vice-versa, but it’s hard to get behind that message here because of nearly how all the characters in present day. The actions that go on in the flashbacks don’t necessarily justify some of the actions in the present day. Both are undoubtedly horrible, but when the film spends so much time building up characters as unlikable and tries to flip it so suddenly towards the end - especially while they then act ten times worse in the present day - it seems very much like too little too late.
Ma should have been a B-movie classic but never quite takes full advantage of its totally insane premise. It contains a great lead performance by Octavia Spencer, who carries much of this film on her shoulders. However, her presence is sorely missed each time she’s not on screen. When she’s not around, the movie is plagued by a restrained feel, unbelievable character decisions, and a mixed message that leave this with a very confusing morality. It’s worth watching, but strictly for Spencer’s performance alone.
Recommendation: Proceed With Caution
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