Film Review: Ma

"What You Did To Me, It Never Goes Away..."

With Blumhouse Productions essentially proclaiming themselves as the second reincarnation of Hammer Horror Studios, the likes of the excellent, Get Out, and the financially successful, Happy Death Day, have allowed the company to pretty much make anything they want with a guaranteed box office reward. Enter Ma, a completely barmy, over-the-top stalker horror which takes hints from pretty much every single B-movie ever, one which sees Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water, Instant Family) as the titular mother figure, Sue Ann, a lonely veterinary technician who soon begins a middling friendship with town newcomer, Maggie Thompson, as played by rising star, Diane Silvers,(Booksmart) and her own freshly found group of friends who quickly become attracted to Sue Ann's willingness to both provide an abundance of alcohol and a safe place to party. Directed by the steady hand of Tate Taylor, a filmmaker who reunites with Spencer after their work together on the Academy Award winning, The Help, Ma is a solid and well made addition into the Blumhouse repertoire which just happens to have a particularly talented actress in the lead role of a genuinely unnerving and creepy genuine psychopath.  

Bearing a very similar narrative to that of Greta earlier this year, a stalker movie which too featured a prominent and well regarded actor/actress in the lead role of a movie which was undoubtedly too schlocky and mad for mainstream audiences, Ma basically swaps Isabelle Huppert for Spencer and Chloe Grace Moretz for Silvers whilst adding a slightly more audience-friendly filmic texture. Whilst the movie never really evokes any sense of longing dread or threat to our laddish, alcohol and sex obsessed leading group of rebellious teenages, Ma instead balances nicely the absurdity of its' narrative with a hefty streak of black comedy as you giggle your way through a ninety minute picture which allows Spencer to not only chew the scenery, but devour it. With the most menacing on-screen haircut since Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men and a personality which mixes Annie Wilkes from Misery with Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Spencer is undoubtedly the star turn within the movie, and with a couple of truly nasty, sadistic and memorable set pieces, Ma is not exactly groundbreaking, but with enough positive elements to make genre fans happy, the latest Blumhouse chapter is cheap, giggle-inducing fun. 

Overall Score: 6/10

90th Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress

Oscars 2018: Best Supporting Actress

Here we are at last with the final main Academy Awards category to gloss over before the ceremony takes place on the 4th of March, and following in the footsteps of its' predecessors, the Best Supporting Actress this year is yet another strongly contested battle between five stars who each are deserved of prestigious recognition. With Allison Janney my own personal tip for taking home the gong after her success at the BAFTA's for her hilarious role in I, Tonya, such a decision speaks more so from the head whilst the heart points in the direction of Leslie Manville for her absolutely brilliant and stunningly nuanced role in Paul Thomas Anderson's wickedly subversive, Phantom Thread, a movie which unfortunately may be completely overlooked in most of the categories in which it has nominations. Elsewhere, Laurie Metcalf and Octavia Spencer earn the plaudits for their brilliant performances in Lady Bird and The Shape of Water respectively, whilst Mary J. Blige completes the ticket for her role in the Netflix funded Mudbound, and whilst the likes of Sylvia Hoeks and Rosamund Pike could easily been nominated likewise for Blade Runner 2049 and Hostiles also, we conclude our Academy Award rundown with the final main points below...

Winner - Allison Janney (I, Tonya)

Personal Favourite - Leslie Manville (Phantom Thread)

Nomination Snub - Sylvia Hoeks (Blade Runner 2049)

Film Review: I, Tonya

"I Was Loved For A Minute, Then I Was Hated. Then I Was Just A Punch Line..."

Based upon the controversial and compelling career of professional ice skater, Tonya Harding, Craig Gillespie's (The Finest Hours) Oscar nominated biographical drama, I, Tonya, featuring Margot Robbie (The Wolf of Wall Street) in arguably her most fleshed-out leading performance yet, takes an impressive shot at attempting to gel together a mix of Scorsese inspired storytelling with a Rocky-esque tale of sporting success, and with the aid of a rockabilly jukebox soundtrack and eye-catching performances all around, Gillespie's latest is a rousing, crowd-pleasing success. Utilising the form of retrospective interviews with each of the key players to unravel the exposition as the narrative evolves, I, Tonya benefits from a lightning quick editing pace straight from the outset, beginning with a young Harding as she is nurtured and raised by the steely-eyed harshness of Allison Janney's (The Girl on the Train) LaVona Fay Golden as she begins her love affair with the ice and swiftly moving to the fruition of the relationship between herself and Sebastian Stan's (Captain America: Civil War) Jeff Gillooly, one which proves central to Harding's journey through both successes and life-changing failures. 

Whilst the interview format does make it easy for Gillespie to cross over every avenue possible in terms of storytelling gaps, the constant switch from past to present does ultimately jar the pace of the movie come the second half, one which is too not exactly helped by the decision to include the breaking of the fourth wall at times which personally never really seemed to work to the film's advantage, yet where the movie does succeed is in Robbie's wildly comical and full blooded performance, one which utilises the scripts attempts to balance her love for the sport with the shocking depiction of domestic issues from both Janney's chain-smoking mother figure and Stan's abusive and deluded on/off love, and one which through the aid of digital effects and stunt doubles means that the physicality of the skating scenes are brilliantly orchestrated. Of course, with Harding's biggest association being that of a rather violent moment of utmost craziness, the concluding act of the movie ruffles together elements of jaw-dropping stupidity, laugh out loud comedy and heartbreaking finality, and whilst Gillespie's movie doesn't exactly hit the heights of Scorsese-inflicted film-making it so obviously attempts to emulate, I, Tonya is a highly satisfactory and ludicrous tale of a fundamentally interesting public figure. 

Overall Score: 7/10