Celia Rowlson-Hall's Ma is striking, surrealistic retelling of the Virgin Mary's pilgrimage to give birth to the savior, Jesus Christ. In this modern day retelling, Mary travels across the barren landscape of the American Southwest, intent on fulfilling her destiny in the holy land of Las Vegas. As you probably can already tell from the description above, Rowlson-Hall's Ma is is a rather unique film, which relies almost entirely on symbolism, surrealism, and striking imagery to tell its tale. A modern day silent film, Ma has absolutely no dialogue throughout its running time, relying on image and performance to create its unique experience. Ma is a challenging experience, being one of those films that is best experienced under the understanding that you are not going to grasp every little thing the filmmakers are trying to say. It's a work of art, which is quite opaque and sometimes self indulgent, but the larger aspects of this story are captured in a strikingly assured vision. The whole film has a nice aura about it, an atmospheric tension that is quietly gripping, offering a nice reminder that horror films aren't the only genre that can gain a lot through atmosphere. Some scenes work better than others, as quite a few sequences left me completely baffled as to exactly what Celia Rowlson-Hall was trying to get across. That being said, when Ma is on, it offers some of the best surrealism I've seen in American film in years, with a phenomenal finale few minutes which perfectly put a unique modern spin on the biblical story. Almost guaranteed to frustrate the average viewer with its lack of dialogue and opaque surrealism, Ma is a film that is bound to only be appreciated by cinephiles, as well as lovers of surrealistic art.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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