Even the pure and hard fans of the Tyler Perry inesseprise sometimes want it to slow down a little to focus on quality rather than quantity. But Netflix presents “Straw” has a cultural emergency of pulse taking which raises it above its usual series of comedies and melodramatic potbeillers, also imperfect. With Taraji P. Henson as a single mother charged with more crises than a woman can only endure in one day – which leads to a hostage situation at the “Dog Day Afternoon” – “Straw” sports the familiar defects of her writer -producer.
He is overloaded with the intrigue of the intrigue, histrionic and messaging on the nose, accumulating too much. However, what breaks the back of the camel for this Puton heroine is an accumulated rage that feels particularly listening to our political moment, when for many Americans, it seems that societal institutions have even ceased to claim that citizens under a narrow economic elite. So, when it takes place, its merger has a cathartic power which charges the clumsy dramaturgical impulses of Perry. “Straw” is too messy to be “good”, exactly – but it has bitter relevance, and it works.
In the 20 minutes, Janiyah (Henson) arrives at the shooting of myself in a brief period since the awakening, almost all the bad things as possible, she underwent small abuse, was the victim of a road accident, if her car provided, lost a desperately necessary supermarket work, saw an asthmatic daughter Aria (Gabby Jackson) carried away by the services From their apartment to Tardy. By crawling towards an antipathetic boss (Glynn Turman) for the pay check she still owes, she landed in the middle of an armed conservation ending with two deaths – which is not really her fault, but he certainly resembles this way to the cops.
At the acquired time, beyond the point of rationality, she returns to a bank she had visited earlier, convinced that if she can simply cash her check, the world will be correct again. But her very unlucky is valid: employees assume the hysterical behavior of Janiyah (and the fist of the thieves to which she maintained) that this too is a stick. In quick succession, the entrance is locked, a silent alarm started and the squad cars both stop with sirens screaming in the parking lot of the shopping center outside. Before she had time to clarify the questions, a television instructor in the bank’s hall shows the report of news live, in the casting as the alleged aggressor of a hostage crisis that the whole city watches to unfold.
All this occurs so an eventful way that a half hour has not sold before fear that the maximum “straw” of its quota of cries, tears and panic. This exerts an expensive burden in Henson, doing its best by trying to maintain a role whose due work due to pass the level of distress to 11 too early. There is also a large distribution of support characters, many have called to hit notes of hostility. With few friends or family on which she can count, Janiyah has few allies in her life. When she is suddenly considered a dangerous criminal, the only observers ready to see beyond this Snap judgment are the director of the Nicole (Sherri Shepherd) and DET branch. Raymond (Teyana Taylor), a policewoman who becomes the chief negotiator.
Everyone assumes the worst of her, notably a cashier in a bad mood (Ashley Versher) who undermines the efforts of a peaceful resolution, then the leader (Derek Phillips) of the FBI forces, which intends to a firearm finish. Adding more anxiety is the belief that Janiyah has a bomb, while in fact it with flashing lights and beep sounds in his backpack is a school project for children. Another headache for the authorities is that a photo phone inside the bank captures its distraught monologue explaining what brought it here – which is broadcast on local television, attracting a host of demonstrators outside. (This development highlights the “dog day” based on the facts 50 years ago as a probable inspiration.)
“Straw” is barely Perry of his most indulgent – the mastaining thriller of last year “Divorce in the Black” was 143 minutes – but he still cannot resist the hech in every idea that comes to mind. This means that the film seems overworked at the beginning, before it moved somewhat in the dead end of the bank. Then, he upsets the story again at the end, first with a major turn invalidating a large part of what we have seen before, then a deliberately misleading action sequence. These vanitors could work in a different scenario, but they feel extremely free with a already so crowded with injustices by hand and deadly danger.
Nevertheless, the “straw” succeeds on the whole because we do not necessarily need to find a situation close to Janiyah almost ridiculous entirely credible; It can be accepted as an exaggerated encapsulation of people in the pressure cooker as they live every day. She is systematically rejected as lazy, dishonest or simply bad not to exceed her fate … It doesn’t matter that she works two jobs with minimum wages without advantages, the lack of health insurance meaning that she cannot afford all the drugs that her daughter needs. The cycle of perpetual debt of poverty means that it cannot improve their lives either by returning to the nursing school either.
As Isabella (Diva Tyler) notes, the client-hotage of the elderly bank, “people do not know how poor it is to be.” When she was told again that she should just suck a way or another, Janiyah herself deplores: “Black women always have something to overcome.” “Straw” can be hyperbolic and heavy, but it always contains enough punch as a challenge of “destitute” to “wealthy”: You Try to live this way and see how easy it is to improve.
Shot in Georgia as usual, the last of Perry is one of his highest -manufactured technology and design terms, with a particularly solid job of the director of photography Justyn Moro and the editor Nick Coker. Its script can go above, and a generally follower distribution (which also includes prominent parts for Sinbad, Rockmond Dunbar, Shalet Monique and others) is copions in variable way with its excesses. Finally, however, the director maintains his highest premises together together to achieve an impact no less effective to be characteristic insufficient.
