MA-Hot Take

MA (2019 US) Octavio Spencer stars as a middle aged woman trying to relive her troubled youth by letting local teens party in her basement. Things go wrong. This has been labeled horror and there are certainly elements of that but I would call it more thriller than horror. Rotten Tomatoes has this at 55% and I do think that’s a bit unfair. It has an element of being uncomfortable as Spencer takes the audience on a journey through her baggage. You, as the audience, know its clearly a bad idea to allow these parties but also just wrong and you can’t look away from the coming train wreck. The film has been criticized for not being provacative enough especially with regard to race. Yeah it could have been trippy AF but director Tate Taylor is not required to make it so. It’s up to the director and that’s the story Taylor wanted to tell. For every person who says it should have been more provacative there are just as many who say otherwise. So what does a director do? Tell the story you want to tell. I thought it was entertaining and Spencer really draws you in. Find it on Hulu or for rent on most streaming.