SLC-S25/W1- Movie Snapshots| Around the world [Straw, 2025]
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As bad as it is, there's always someone doing worse. Are you a single mother, or do you know of any? Every mother has a breaking point that is different. Can you imagine being the only child of your mother without a father, and then an unforeseen occurrence takes you away from her?
You're the reason she lives and breathes and has every good gift. She has gone through thick and thin to ensure you're happy and she's happy. Now, death happens to take you away from her. What does she have to live for when you're gone? Nobody cares; nobody gives a damn about her; nobody listens to her or understands her. Now, a time comes when she has to face burden after burden, and the smallest weight becomes a weight that breaks her.
This happens in the space of 24 hours while still trying to pretend you're still alive. Now, she couldn't bear it anymore. This brings about the movie called Straw. It's a trending movie that's not in my country that made 80% of viewers cry because of the plot. I personally had goosebumps watching the movie. Probably I didn't cry because I don't know what it feels like to raise a child alone under intense circumstances, and yet, nobody cares about you and what you're feeling inside.
Watch a movie from a country other than your own country or not of your country's origin. |
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I watched an American movie or film called Straw . It's a recent movie, released on the 6th of June, a movie that made people shed tears because of the plot. People don't know how expensive it is to be poor. This sentence in the straw got a lot of people weeping and reflecting on their straw in the past. The movie isn't entirely classified as an action movie. Its writer and movie director is a popular Tyler Perry who based this on a true-life story.
It was acted in the United States and is distributed by one of the best movie sites, Netflix. Over the past few months, Netflix has been creating serious tension, tears, emotions and fear. Almost 70% of their movies released this year are the talk of the world. The movie is an hour-plus movie with a cast that acts in demeaning, emotional and annoying parts. At some point, I felt I should enter inside the movie and serve justice hot. I literally cried within me as the movie somehow resonates with my mum's life.
| Movie Name | Straw |
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| Released Date | June 6th, 2025 |
| Seen on | Netflix, Fz Movies, Movie Box App and other sites. |
| Movie writer and director | Tyler Perry |
| Download Here | Straw |
Talk about the main idea of the movie |
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This movie has a lot of main ideas that revolve around its plot, which will be talked about in the next question. I'll start by depicting the main idea from the life of a single mother named Janiyah, who life dealt with in general. Looking at her life, if you've watched the movie, you'll see it's no different from what most people face today. Little wonder the old woman in the movie said, 'People don't know how expensive it is to be poor. Let's attack these main ideas — poverty and contentment.
We live in a world where we see people trying to survive hell as they barely have the financial incentives it takes. Janiyah in the movie is poor but contented. She lives a financially stressed life; she has to work extra just to get her needs, whereas people work extra to get wants, but in her case, it's her needs. It was difficult for her to keep up, pay the rent and afford a lot of things as a poor person. But netizens would say, 'Do poor people own cars?
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Let's not go there. We have different classes of poverty, which brings about the sentence — as bad as it is, there's always someone doing worse. Despite being poor and recognising her state, she was contented and didn't complain. All she focused on was giving the only person she has to live for a comfortable life.
When she looked into the lives of the bank manager, she wished she could get such a life where she wouldn't have to live from hand to mouth on a daily basis, all in the name of survival. This is evident in most rural areas as poor people are content with what they have as long as their needs are taken care of with their daily hustle.
Survival:
You must survive. You have to survive. No matter what she was going through – the poverty strikes, calls from her child's school, injustices faced, lack of attention and support and stress from work – she knew that giving up or quitting, so to speak, wasn't the best option. She had to survive, she had to provide her baby's medicine, she had to take care of her baby, and she needed to work to get food on her table.
All these have a strong resolve to survive in this emotionally detached wicked world. Her story teaches that no matter what you're going through in life, surviving is winning. At some point, she was caught in a mess but still didn't want to die so she could go to her baby.
Motherhood and mental health
Living as a single mother is hard, not just being a mother who has someone to support you. This drives concerns in what mothers go through just to give their children the best. A mother once said her children are her happiness. I saw her suffer as a mother. She went into a state of desperation and hallucination which affected her mental health.
Why? She lost the only person she could call her life. The picture depicts this. Most people go into a state of depression and mental instability when they have gone through their worst that it becomes unbearable.
Injustices and lack of communal support can be challenging to deal with
In her case, she faced injustices on 4 occasions, as these injustices tend to make her break down. The poor are being taken for granted and are frustrated because they have no one to turn to. This is how unjust the world is, and you can't help it if you don't have the money and influence to bypass. Injustices from her boss, landlady, police personnel and her daughter's school teachers were enough to make her run not.
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Kindness and compassion summarize everything as the protagonist was kind to people and her kindness and compassion by those who heard her story were reciprocated. . Even though others are mean to us, there are still others with good hearts who would support and love us.
In summary, the main idea around this movie is trying to survive and be kind in the face of poverty, mental instability, trauma, hardships, injustices and financial constraints.
Share the characters |
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Cast
| Name in Movie | Name in Real life |
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| Janiyah Wilkinson as the Protagonist | Taraji P. Henson |
| Nicole as the Bank Manager | Sherri Shepherd |
| Detective Kay Raymond | Teyana Taylor |
| Benny | Sinbad |
| Chief Wilson | Rockmond Dunbar |
| Richard | Glynn Turman |
| Detective Grimes | Mike Merrill |
| Tessa George | Ashley Versher |
| Officer Dickson | Anthony E. Williams |
| Officer Oliver | Tilky Jones |
Describe the plot and setting of the movie. |
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Janiyah Wilkinson, who happens to be the protagonist of the movie, is a single mother living with her ill daughter, Aria, who frequently suffers from seizures. She had this seizure a day before in a bathtub, which made her fall, leaving her with bruises on her back. This made the mother afraid to leave her all by herself even when she's taking expensive medicines to suppress the seizures. The young girl needs money for lunch, about $40, to avoid being subject to mockery in school as she eats special meals because of her condition.
On her way to drop Aria off at school, she showed compassion to a man in a wheelchair with the little she had, which angered her landlord as she hadn't paid her rent. This prompted the landlord to say she'll evict her that day if she doesn't pay up. Late for work, Janiyah had to drop her child off at school and still face the wrath of her authoritative and insensitive boss. She faced injustices while working before she saw a call on her phone. Receiving her first call was a journey to her worst nightmare.
She was called by the school to bring in $40 for lunch, which she had to cash at the bank, as her boss had refused to give her her pay cheque. On arriving at the bank to get the $40, she couldn't do so immediately as there was a long queue. Frustrated, she left for the child's school. On arriving, she met a turn of events. Her child was taken away from her for her inability to take care of the child. Even as she tried to explain, they didn't understand her.
Frustrated and sad, she went back to work with her car. While on the road, she met another misfortune. A corp deliberately bashed her car and promises to kill her if they meet again. Her car was towed for having an expired licence, and worst still, it was raining heavily. On arriving at her workplace, her boss fired her for not keeping to the 30 minutes' time he gave her. He also refused to give her her pay cheque, which made situations crazy.
Frustrated, she left for her apartment only to find out she was evicted and her things were thrown outside, despite the rain. She made the loudest scream, and she couldn't believe life could be this unfair and cruel. If you face such a thing in a period of 24 hours, you'll definitely run mad. The next day, she was accused by her boss of setting up a robbery attack on him just to get her pay cheque.
Reflecting on all she has passed through lately, she took advantage of the whole situation, snapped and killed her boss after killing one of the robbers. She then took just her pay cheque to the bank to cash it with the snatched gun and science fair project machine in a backpack. Investigations were ongoing, and they found out she was responsible for the crime scenes.
Netizens said they rooted for her, saying she could never do such. This made a detective think out of the box, and that probably, she must have snapped with everything she went through. Going to the bank was another dilemma. The teller refused to cash her pay cheque as she needed some form of verification.
Frustrated, Janiyah threatened her with a gun to do the job. Situations went worse when forces stood outside the bank to handle the situation. Janiyah was charged with bankruptcy and murder and had force men outside, waiting for her to release the hostages and surrender. None of those force men understood her except Detective Raymond, who understood the situation and promised to bring her out safely.
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While she was in the bank, she narrated her story with tears, which made most of the hostages sympathise with her. The bank manager promises to protect and be with her after hearing her story. It was later she had a flashback that her Aria, who she was struggling to survive and protect, was long dead. In her thoughts, she felt the force; men could just break in and kill her because she had nothing to live for. It was all hallucinations in her head which affected her mental health. There was no Aria in the beginning.
Plot twist: There was no Aria
She just used these hallucinations to give herself hope and strength as she found it difficult to believe in the death of her Aria. Judged by law and compassion, she was arrested to spend a few years in prison, and the riot ended peacefully. Before she surrendered, she ensured that the policeman who threatened to kill her anytime they met was taken away from the scene. She really wanted to survive.
This movie was acted in the United States, centered in the Urban American city, filled with the buildings as real as they are. These includes; Janiyah's Apartment, The supermarket where she works, the hospital and the benevolent bank where the crime scene tend to happen.
If you were the Director of the movie what would you do differently? |
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If I were the movie director, I would have made the hallucinations real as they were and then give Janiyah a second chance after her release from prison to assume her responsibility with her only daughter, Aria. I know the tension and plot twist were necessary to portray main ideas and rhyme with the straw title, but I would have put a happy ending to give viewers hope that there's always light at the end of a dark tunnel.
You don't know how expensive it is to be poor unless you experience it. No matter what you're facing in life especially to those traders out there that are depressed and have their mental health affected, survival is winning.
I invite @nsijoro, @artist1111 and @damithudaya
All screenshots are gotten from the movie, watched on my phone.
Thank you for participating in this challenge of season 25.
It's funny that you cried within you but you didn't cry out. Good choice of movie!. The twist in this movie was something else that I never imagined.
I commend you for your effort and I love that you added link where someone can see this movie.
Thanks for the review.
You have beautifully portrayed the struggles, frustrations, stress and neglect of a single mother. The twists of the movie, the non-existence of Arya's character and the final moments of the heroine's breakdown are so real and painful that I, as a reader, am moved by emotion. 😌
Thanks so much for going through my writing. I wrote every word with emotions....Have you at some point in life faced disappointment thrice in a day.?
Let's say you're a trader...
This is just an example....Have you?
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