Tyler Perry’s ‘Straw’ stands with stressed-out single mothers everywhere

Janiyah Wiltkinson (Taraji P. Henson) has hit her limit in Tyler Perry’s “Straw” on Netflix. Courtesy of Netflix

“Straw” — 2 stars

Few filmmakers portray the Black American experience with so much heart and so little finesse as Tyler Perry. Doesn’t matter if his movies aren’t art — they reach an audience whether they’re comedies (his Madea movies), middle-class melodramas or period pieces like 2024’s World War II-era “The Six Triple Eight.” That last was a high point in a career of directing nearly 30 movies in 20 years, not counting Perry’s many TV shows and stage plays — a run of inspired workaholism that has made the writer-director one of the most financially successful filmmakers of his generation.

Streaming on Netflix, “Straw” is Perry’s version of “Dog Day Afternoon.” Anchored b