Originally premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.
"Earth Mama" isn't one of A24's best works but it's still an ambitious film about the struggles of being a single mother with interesting themes explored, beautiful camerawork and a good lead performance. Leaf does a pretty good job on maintaining the directing and the movie's tone with keeping the dramatic and emotional elements holding pretty well while ensuring the film's realism is kept stable.
Throughout, the camerawork and the colorful presentation helps create the beauty of the Bay Area of California and the environment the characters are surrounded in. Many of the performances were solid with the main lead's performance being pretty good. On the narrative, the narrative is simple as the narrative has been explored before from previous movies and for the most part, there were some strong elements while some other elements could have some improvements.
The soundtrack was smooth to help add closure and emotional depth into the setting. The characters have interesting moments and purposes but I wasn't really able to fully connected with them as I hoped for. The characters had some charming moments but they could have been better fleshed out. The pacing was pretty good and the third act does have some pretty genuine emotional moments that were strong.
Overall, despite some flaws, Leaf does provide an interesting movie on motherhood amongst the black community with an strong outlook.
Rating: B.
