Ma Director: Tate Taylor
Writer: Scotty Landes, Tate Taylor
Cast: Octavia Spencer, Juliette Lewis, Diana Silvers, Luke Evans, McKaley Miller, Missi Pyle, Corey Fogelmanis, Marjay Ross, Gianni Paolo, Dante Brown
Distributor: Universal Pictures
Rated R | Minutes: 99
Release Date: May 31, 2019
Ma can be seen as a cautionary tale about horrible teens doing horrible things because they are horrible people whose actions will have dire repercussions. The reality of this is that when a bully’s actions go unpunished, it is only a matter of time before the sins of the past come back to haunt the person. It’s a pretty sound premise for a horror film.
The only problem is, Ma lacks structure, balance, and cannot figure out what exactly it wants to be because it feels like there are two separate films going on at once. Director Tate Taylor’s latest effort brings out the best in Octavia Spencer, who plays the titular character, but she’s surrounded by characters who lack depth. My full review below.
A couple of months back we saw a restricted trailer for Booksmart, which marks Alpha Dog and TRON: Legacy star Olivia Wilde‘s feature directorial debut. The movie stars Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein as a pair of straight-A students who decide it’s time to go to a party and live it up a bit before they have to head off to college.
Now a pair of final trailers have been released by Annapurna. One is another restricted trailer, which is not so safe for workplace viewing, while the other is a short safer for work trailer. You can find both of these final Booksmart trailers below along with some bonus previously released videos, including a green band trailer, featurettes, and the uncut first six minutes of the movie, and a pair of posters.
We’ve seen Octavia Spencer in some pretty inspiring and Oscar-winning roles. But never quite something like Ma, which Universal Pictures has released an official trailer for.
In the film Spencer plays as a quiet loner who helps some teenagers buy booze and sees the opportunity to make some new friends by taking them to her basement. Though they suspect something, it turns out she isn’t all that bad. That is until she becomes more aggressive as her popularity starts to rise. And when one of the kids breaks the ground rules of never going upstairs, things in this once small quiet town become really scary. Check out the trailer for Ma below.
Students of the Unusual™ comic cover used with permission of 3BoysProductions
The Mercuri Bros.™ comic cover used with permission of Prodigal Son Press