Raissa Santos

Straw was released on Netflix on June 6 and is currently the number one film in Canada. While reviews from critics are mixed, Tyler Perry’s newest drama is garnering a higher audience score, with a 76 per cent audience rating on the popcorn meter.

Plot
Janiyah Wiltkinson (Taraji P. Henson) is an exhausted single mother working two jobs just to stay above the poverty line in Georgia. Most of her money is spent on the health of her young daughter Aria (Gabby Jackson), who has asthma and suffers from seizures. Janiyah’s day already begins on the wrong foot — her loud neighbours won’t let her or Aria get proper sleep, she must pay her rent or face eviction, and on top of that, Aria needs $40 for her school lunch so her teachers and peers will stop making fun of her.

A spark of hope for Janiyah is that she also gets paid today. Within minutes of starting her job at a grocery store, Janiyah gets a call from her daughter’s school telling her she needs to be there right away. Her unsympathetic boss Richard (Glynn Turman) gives her a 30-minute window, during which everything goes terribly wrong.

Child services are taking Aria away from her, and a police car runs Janiyah off the road, threatening her: “I’m gonna find a legal way to fucking blow your brains out,” as her car is also impounded for driving with an expired licence. She gets evicted and loses her job all within a few hours. To make matters worse, due to company policy her boss won’t give Janiyah her paycheque — she will have to wait for it to arrive in the mail. One of the many things that could be the last straw for Janiyah is that without her paycheque, she won’t be able to give Aria the $40 she needs. In a blink of an eye, two armed robbers invade Richard’s office. They also try to rob Janiyah’s backpack, which contains Aria’s medicine and her science fair project that looks like a bomb. She can’t let this happen and, amid a struggle with one of the robbers, she shoots him in the heat of the moment. Before she can process what has happened, her boss is calling the police, telling them she plotted the robbery because one of the robbers knew her name (he had just read her name tag). She can’t go to prison; she just needs to cash her cheque and give Aria the $40 for lunch. In the stress and panic, Janiyah also shoots her boss.

She crosses the street to the bank exhausted, holding the bloody paycheque she wants to cash. The bank cannot cash it without her ID, which was stolen. Janiyah snaps and, still holding a gun, forces the banker to give her the money. When bank manager Nicole (Sherri Shepherd) sees the combination of the gun and bomb-like science project in the clear backpack, she reports it to police as if it is a hostage situation. From Janiyah’s perspective, her harmless attempt to cash her cheque escalates quickly, with police and the FBI getting involved.

All these events occur within less than 30 minutes of the movie. The story follows the police attempt to negotiate the release of the hostages, led by Det. Kay Raymond (Teyana Taylor). Other main characters include Rockmond Dunbar as Chief Wilson, Mike Merrill as Det. Grimes, and Derek Phillips as Agent Bryce.

Reviews
Straw is written and directed by Tyler Perry and is still waiting for its Rotten Tomatoes rating. Reviews from The Guardian, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety mention that the director continues to repeat the same types of flaws in his films. They describe the film as somewhat chaotic, with too much happening to a single character, some odd cuts — such as one scene going from day to night abruptly — and an unnecessary two-alternative ending, with one being just a “what if” scenario. The film was also compared to a female-led version of Dog Day Afternoon.

Audience reviews are positive, with people saying they were touched by Janiyah’s story. A post on X says, “Have your tissues ready — so much to digest. 10/10 film.” Another says, “This wasn’t just a movie; it was psychological warfare.” Janiyah’s struggle reached the extreme, but many viewers related — or tried to relate — to the life of a person with almost nothing and no support. “People don’t know how expensive it is to be poor,” a line said by one of the hostages, has resonated widely on social media.

Perry has over 30 projects in his 20-year career. Critics say that what is seen in Perry’s projects is usually quantity over quality. Taraji P. Henson’s performance is praised, with many reviews saying that her outstanding performance is what makes the movie more credible and elevates it above Perry’s other works.

Janiyah’s character was written for Taraji P. Henson. This is the fourth project where they have worked together. Henson filmed her scenes in only four days, as she was in the middle of shooting the limited series Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist. On working with Perry once again, Henson says she is always excited to work with the director because he challenges her in different ways with each role. She said in an interview with People, “He ups the ante every time. And I appreciate that because he knows I love a good challenge.”