Taraji P. Henson as Janiyah Wiltkinson in “Straw.” (Chip Bergmann/Perry Well Films 2/Netflix)

Review by Ty Burr (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.

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