Straw: Low-Quality Work with a High-Quality Protagonist
Directed by Tyler Perry
“People don’t know how expensive it is to be poor.”
an Old Lady
Straw is another Tyler Perry drama film written, produced and directed by him – which is obvious to see. It is overhyped and underdeveloped with unending trauma that masquerades as a successful attempt at storytelling. The opening scene begins with a single and visibly tired mother named Janiyah Wiltkinson and her daughter Aria. The premise of these issues are borne out of Janiyah’s inability to pay the money for her daughter’s lunch. Janiyah leaves home and enters a metaphorical warzone as everything begins to fall apart. Within the first 20 minutes of the film, Janiyah receives an eviction notice, denigration from a petulant boss, a death threat from a racist cop, and more – it is evident that pacing is unnecessary. With unbelievable dialogue and the caricatures that utter them, you could really see the work of Tyler written all over it. In what universe, would a cop blatantly say, “I am going to find a legal way to put a bullet in your head.” Where is the subtlety? Where is the nuance? The quality of a film is dependent on the effectiveness of its script. It is easy to see that the script is poor as each character takes turns to endlessly berate Janiyah because of the way in which they were written, which is one-dimensional. From the landlord to her boss, to the cop, to the bank teller – these characters were all the same. Similarly to Beauty in Black, the characters would antagonize the protagonist in a way only characterized as unnecessarily mean. You can always see a pattern in the work he creates.
Technically, the film is considerably low budget as seen in prop designs, costuming, and inconsistency between scenes. Truly the only redeeming quality was the emotionality produced by Taraji Henson as Janiyah. She carried the movie and the strong will of an exasperated mother. It was unnecessary for her to experience such a challenging day, especially when it appeared to be so unnatural in the way it happened. Bad things do happen but at least add some realism to it by padding it with filler or better ways to portray it. The film takes a stab at bringing more on the discussion of mental health issues but its effectiveness falters because of the production quality. It was said that the movie was shot in four days, and you could certainly tell. It is a shame that the only way Taraji would truly feel compensated for her caliber of work is through a TP film, because the production itself pales in comparison to the amount of talent produced to play Janiyah. Also, Straw seemed to try to produce a movie like Dog Day Afternoon but unlike Straw, the characters in the former had depth and you could feel the plight of the protagonist and those around him. Whereas with Straw, the acting seemed mediocre apart from Taraji which led to a disconnect. Others have mentioned similarities to John Q; however, it would be a terrible thing to compare Straw to such culturally defining films.
Straw attempts to be a Dog Day Afternoon, some say John Q caliber type drama film but because of Tyler’s pledge to mediocrity – it becomes a parody of both films. Merely salvaged by the wonderful work of Taraji Henson, its successes are herald by an audience that recognizes themselves in Janiyah. Despite this, there needs to be greater effort put into the work needed to produce a movie for a demographic that Perry “seems” to care about. If he truly does care, why is his message brought to us in a low-effort and poorly produced package. The amount of work you put into something determines the amount of value you assign to it. His passion project, Straw, only required four days of work. So, is it really of value to him or another way to fulfill his quota for Netflix?
The Island Cinephile 
