According to its tagline on IMDb, Straw follows a “single mother [who] navigates a series of unfortunate events, leading her down an unforeseen path where she becomes embroiled in a situation she never envisioned, finding herself at the center of suspicion in an indifferent world.”

Even diehard fans of the tireless Tyler Perry sometimes wish he'd slow down a bit to focus on quality over quantity. But Netflix feature "Straw" has a cultural pulse-taking urgency that lifts it above his usual run of comedies and melodramatic potboilers,

As bad as it is, there’s always someone doin’ it worse!” That’s just one of the pearls of wisdom dropped in Straw (now streaming on Netflix), an effectively tense action-melodrama set during a particularly rotten day in which a hard-working woman who only wants to take care of her daughter finally snaps.