Netflix And Chill: Straw (2025)

Taraji P. Henson is someone I really like. She's a fantastic acting talent, and I keep wishing that she would get more roles fully deserving of her talent. I decided to be optimistic when I saw Straw being advertised. Written and directed by Tyler Perry, it looked to be a film in need of the right person strong enough to carry the weight of it all on their shoulders. Henson is able to carry that weight, but it's not easy when Perry continues to add to her load.

Henson plays Janiyah Wiltkinson, a single mother having a really bad day. She's struggling to pay the bills, including her rent, struggling to maintain a decent quality of life for her sick daughter (who needs medication for a condition that leads to her having seizures), and struggling to keep hold of her job, where she's ruled over by a tyrannical asshole named Richard (Glynn Turman). Things go from bad to worse when Janiyah tries to get her latest paycheck from her boss, one that she needs to cash immediately at a local bank, and it's not long until police are involved when people mistakenly assume that Janiyah has plans to rob the bank.

Whatever you think of his films, and I've not been the biggest fan of the few that I've seen, it's hard not to admire the massive success that Tyler Perry has had. He makes films for a large audience of people who have largely been ill-served by the mainstream movie business, and he knows the details and specific cultural touches that will resonate with black American viewers. Others are welcome though, and there's plenty in Straw that anyone can identify with, whether it's the constant struggle to remain financially solvent or the pain that comes from working under a power-hungry little dictator. There's a hint of Falling Down about this, as well as a hint of Dog Day Afternoon, and a dash of The Negotiator, which should be a description that lets you know whether or not you will enjoy it at all. 

Henson is superb in the main role, even while asked to keep her performance at an eleven and repeat certain phrases like a mantra as her character becomes more and more bewildered by the situation she finds herself in. Sherri Shepherd lends great support in the role of Nicole, the bank manager who wants the whole situation to end peacefully for everyone involved. Teyana Taylor and Mike Merrill are a good pair of police officers, the former strongly identifying with the difficulties that Henson's character has faced, Anthony E. Williams has a small, but vital, role as a very bad police officer, and Turman spends every moment of his screentime making himself as thoroughly unpleasant as possible. There are many others in the cast (including Sinbad, Ashley Versher, Rockmond Dunbar, Diva Tyler, and Shalèt Monique), and it's also good to see that Perry can work hard to put together convincing numbers when our lead is in a busy public area or surrounded by crowds.

There are some negatives here though, and I don't want to give the impression that I loved this. I liked it, although even liking it was tricky on a few occasions. It's hard to watch something that is so unrelentingly overwrought for most of the runtime, and it's hard to accept an important plot point that is highlighted towards the end of the film in a way that makes you realise that Perry has been slightly cheating us. As much as I knew how things would turn out by the very end of the film, one bit of deliberate obfuscation was sorely disappointing for how much it felt like what it was: an easy way to add emotional weight to the last act. Things also aren't helped by the fact that our lead spends so much time being unaware of how everything could be viewed by others that it makes her seem wilfully ignorant.

Still . . . it's Henson. In a lead role that at least makes some use of her formidable talent. That may not be enough to keep some viewers pleased, but I was happy enough. 

6/10

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The Color Purple (2023)

I was worried about making this my first full experience of The Color Purple, but I felt that my experience of the story was long overdue. Having not read the book by Alice Walker, nor seen the previous film adaptation by Steven Spielberg (I have to be in just the right headspace to watch something I anticipate being so heavy-going, which is why I have STILL yet to watch Schindler’s List), I was vaguely aware of the fact that it had also been turned into a successful musical, but I had no idea how that would work with the disturbing content. Having now watched this film, an adaptation that uses numbers from the musical, u still have no idea how the two elements are supposed to work together. Because they don’t, not for me anyway, but some others disagree.

Here’s a very basic plot summary. Celie (Fantasia Barrino) has been abused by her father, and has subsequently given birth to children that were almost immediately taken away from her. She is then handed over to be married to Mister (Colman Domingo), an abusive and horrid man who just wants a woman to look after his older children and keep the house in order. Mister is angered when his son, Harpo (Corey Hawkins), becomes involved in a serious relationship with the confident and outspoken Sofia (Danielle Brooks), but his mood is lifted by the arrival of a woman he obviously prefers to his own mistreated wife, a singer named Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson).

With writer Marcus Gardley translating Marsha Norman’s stage version of the material into movie form, it’s hard to be overly critical of a film that has the hurdle of such a strange mix at the heart of it. The script has moments that still work, powerful moments that remain as effective and shocking today as they did when they were first written, but viewers know that the tone and flow of the narrative will eventually be spoiled by some musical numbers. Which is easy to accept if the musical numbers are memorable and impressive enough. With perhaps one exception, these are not.

Director Blitz Bazawule hasn’t done anything else that I’m familiar with, but his relatively small filmography has at least a couple of entries pointing towards the reason for putting him at the head of this production. He does well enough, although I do wish the visuals throughout had been more interesting, if they had made a stronger choice on how to depict the world we’re taken into, but is as hampered as the writer by the source material.

The cast, thankfully, do great work with what they are given. Barrino may be depressingly passive for most of her journey, at least until she finds even deeper reserves of courage amidst the ongoing abuse and indignities, but she remains sweet and easy to root for throughout, showing someone trying to make the best of a situation that is seemingly destined to never improve. Domingo plays a loathsome figure, supported in his choices by his own father (Louis Gossett Jr.) in one or two scenes, and he doesn’t try to sugar-coat his brutishness, for the most part. Hawkins is good, playing an entitled young man who seems to be very much poised between turning out good or bad, and a number of other supporting cast members do solid work. But it’s Brooks and Henson who stand out, both portraying women who refuse to stay in whatever pigeonhole the world wants to put them in. The film rises up whenever one of these two women appears onscreen, and they ultimately make the whole thing feel bearable. They let the viewers remember that things can change in much the same way that they inspire hope in our lead character.

It’s all put together well enough, this certainly doesn’t feel lazy or careless, but The Color Purple still remains, for me, a powerful story that shouldn’t be rudely interrupted by occasional songs. I look forward to anything that these cast and main crew members do next. I just really hope that it’s not another musical.

5/10

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No Good Deed (2014)

Idris Elba is a horrible person. In this movie. In real life, from what I have seen of his many public appearances, he seems like a lovely guy. But in this movie he's playing a horrible person. It's just a shame that the film is also quite horrible.

Elba plays Colin, a man who is hoping for parole after serving five years in prison on a manslaughter charge. His parole is refused, with at least one board member reminding everyone that Colin was also the main suspect in the murders of five different women. Heading back to prison, Colin escapes and immediately heads out to get revenge on his ex-fiancée (Alexis, played by Kate del Castillo). He also ends up losing control of his car, and inveigling his way into the home of Terri (Taraji P. Henson), a neglected wife and busy mother of two. And so begins a tense game of cat and mouse.

Well, that's what should happen. What you end up getting is a bit different.

Director Sam Miller has a career full of some quality TV work (including Luther, another show that did great things for Elba), but he tries to maintain a cinematic sheen to the predictable dross here. There's nothing too showy, and he can often let viewers simply enjoy the leads interacting with one another, but there's nothing too static and "stage-bound" either.

Writer Aimee Lagos, with one short and one other feature to her credit (both of which she also directed), is the person who lets everyone down. Her script is trite, drawn out, despite the brief runtime, and often almost outright laughable. The fact that Elba and Henson make the thing even remotely watchable is testament to their talent. Make a list of everything you see in thrillers that make a lead character seem dumb, often just to sustain things until an established end point, and you can check off every item while watching this.

I don't need to go on any more about how good the leads are. I at least knew that I was a fan of both actors before I started watching the film. I didn't expect greatness, but I was hoping for some fun. There are some fun moments, and all of them happen in the scenes that have Elba and Henson working opposite one another in a fluid and flirtatious manner. Leslie Bibb does well in a supporting role (a best friend named Meg), the kind of role that means you just know what's going to happen as soon as you see her billing, and the few other players do perfectly fine, including the young children.

It's not as bad as some ridiculous thrillers, granted, but this is bad. There's not enough room for the plot to have any decent twists and turns, even if Lagos could have been bothered to try harder, and every minute of runtime makes things feel less and less plausible. It's not a painful experience though. It's just a sadly unenjoyable one.

4/10

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Netflix And Chill: Coffee & Kareem (2020)

Is it just me or have there been a lot of comedies lately falling back into the well-worn tropes of the buddy cop genre without both leads being cops. There ARE movies with two mismatched cops (at least two of the better ones star Melissa McCarthy), but we now have cops dragging innocent civilians into their dangerous escapades (e.g. Central Intelligence, Stuber), couples trying to prove their innocence by diving into the underworld (e.g. Date Night, The Lovebirds), and adults teamed up with kids (My Spy, this). Of course, the familiar formula has been reworked with various combinations over the past few decades, nothing new there, but it feels as if there's been a recent resurgence, with it already becoming almost as tired and word as it was by the time Whoopi Goldber was partnered up with a talking dinosaur.

Ed Helms plays a police officer, Coffee, who doesn't seem to be too good at his job. He's enjoying his new relationship with Vanessa (Taraji P. Henson) though, although things may be a little tense with her son, Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh). In fact, Kareem pretends to want some bonding time with Coffee, all to set a plan in motion that he hopes will get the man a beating. Things go wrong though, and Coffee and Kareem end up running for their lives. There are some dangerous baddies hot on their tale, and there may be some corrupt cops also involved.

The first feature from writer Shane Mack, this is very much a paint-by-numbers example of this kind of film, with the added "bonus" of one of the protagonists being a foul-mouthed kid. Mack sets everything up as you would expect. People being in the wrong place at the wrong time, the leads not getting on for the majority of the movie, but working together when necessary, and the obvious reveal of the main villain (revealed quite early on, to be fair, and not presented as a big "gotcha" moment). It's nothing special, but it's not bad, and there are a couple of good scenes making use of Helms being a desperate man while not wanting to be perceived as racist.

Director Michael Dowse (who also helmed Stuber, funnily enough) goes through the motions. He's not a director with any kind of voice, he just tends to work as well as the material that he's given. Coffee & Kareem is just okay, mainly because it is dragged down by the fact that Kareem isn't as hilarious a character as those making the movie think he is.

Gardenhigh isn't necessarily to blame for the way his character comes across, but it's easy to imagine things playing out a bit better with someone else in the role, perhaps someone who can better play up the attitude while also staying likeable enough to root for. Helms is doing the kind of stiff everyman he has done so many times before, and he's good at it, and Henson is disappointingly underused. Betty Gilpin takes on another movie role in her seemingly ongoing attempt to find something cinematically that will best showcase her talent, and she's definitely a highlight. It's just a shame that the middling nature of the rest of the movie means that this is another role that won't really stand out in her filmography.

Coffee & Kareem is okay, and that's all. You can watch it once and forget about it soon after, or you can avoid it completely without any fear of missing out. It's a shame that they decided to try and wring most of their laughs from Kareem being "hilariously profane". That's not where the better comedy lies, and it's only the other gags that help to make this average, as opposed to truly awful.

5/10

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Ani-MAY-tion: Ralph Breaks The Internet (2018)

It has been a number of years since I saw, and enjoyed, Wreck-It Ralph, the tale of a videogame baddie (Ralph, played by John C. Reilly) who tried to give himself a different role in life while befriending the a glitching racer girl named Vanellope (Sarah Silverman).

This gets going quickly enough, and the main theme this time is friendship, and how to always be there as a friend by knowing when to step back. There are other things in the mix, but that is the main element, and it's underscored by the grand finale.

Story-wise, the Sugar Rush arcade game ends up breaking a steering wheel. As it is an old machine, the arcade owner isn't sure if it will be fixed or just removed from the arcade, which would leave Vanellope without a home. Luckily, she and Ralph have just learned about the internet, which has just been installed. So they head off to ebay, bid far too much for a replacement steering wheel, and then have to figure out how to earn enough money to pay for it before their allotted time runs out. This involves a bit of treasure hunting for special game treats and, eventually, Ralph trying to become a viral hit.

The voice cast, both the returning performers and the newcomers, are all doing great work here (everyone fitting their characters as well as they did the first time around). Reilly and Silverman make a very cute central pairing, Gal Gadot and Taraji P. Henson are two female characters who are very powerful in differing ways, and there are great little turns from Jack McBrayer, Jane Lynch, Alan Tudyk, and Bill Hader.

Directors Phil Johnston and Rich Moore (both involved with the first movie, which was directed solely by Moore) do a great job throughout. They're helped hugely by the animation team, and the animation is gorgeous and fun throughout (there are SO many details to look out for on rewatched), and the script, co-written by Johnston and Pamela Ribon, with the help of many others, is smart and very funny, while also largely keeping things cute and aimed very much at the child audience.

The fact that Disney now own almost everything in the world means that you also get a world in which Disney princesses feature alongside Star Wars characters, as well as Pixar stars, and familiar Marvel faces (well, at least one). And you once again get a fun mix of well-known videogame characters interacting with one another.

Visually lush, emotionally resonant (especially for children who make friends so easily but may then have to adjust to the normal status quo of friendships ebbing and flowing), and featuring a finale with one of the best, funniest, rescue sequences I have seen in the past couple of decades, Ralph Breaks The Internet is even slightly better than the original film, which I enjoyed a lot. Highly recommended.

9/10

You can buy the disc here.
Americans can get it here.