Netflix: Review of MOMMY ISSUES: Mess with Mother

July 1, 2021

22-year old Katya (Sue Ramirez) moved in with her boyfriend Migo (Jerome Ponce) after she accepted his wedding proposal. This caused her over-protective mother Ella (Pokwang) to be hysterical as she opposed Kat's decision. The amiable matriarch of the family, Fenny (Gloria Diaz), tried her best to mediate between her daughter and her grand-daughter. 

Meanwhile, a rich Korean businessman Mr. Kim (Ryan Bang) made a multi-million peso property purchase from Ella's real estate company. However, much to Ella's surprise, Mr. Kim began to invite her out to dates and later admitted that he was in love with her. When Katya found out about her mother's budding love affair, it was her turn to be hysterical against it.

Gloria Diaz can really play these wealthy, progressive matrons like Fenny with ease, as she had done in many romcoms and telenovelas before. She was very relaxed in her portrayal of the extravagant, gossipy yet doting grandmother, like this was her second nature. Even if the role seemed very familiar for Ms. Diaz, it never felt like she was phoning it in. 

Sue Ramirez is certainly one of this generation's best actresses, and her turn as Katya was quite passionate and sympathetic, as she is known for. Even if Katya's developments in the latter half of the film did not seem consistent with the Katya in the first half, Ramirez was still able to sell it convincingly, without needing to resort to be over-the-top to be funny. 

Pokwang as Ella was given the brunt of the comedy work in this film, and she was not subtle about it at all. Everything she did was loud from the get-go, as hysterical as hysterical can get, doing anything for a laugh. When Ryan Bang's Mr. Kim came into the picture with her, their raucous slapstick routine went double-time, with many gags becoming rather raunchy. 

At 90 minutes, this film went along on a quick pace. The plot is not complex, so you could probably predict most of the events well before they happen. If you look beyond the slapstick schticks (which can be annoying), you will still enjoy the witticisms writer-director Jose Javier Reyes had to say about prickly mother-daughter relationships. 5/10.