Almost There: Danielle Deadwyler in "Till"

by Cláudio Alves

The Oscars are less than a month away, but our collective hearts still ache for those who the Academy snubbed. Indeed, you showed up in force when asked to vote on which unnominated performance deserved a complete analysis. The two definitive winners were Danielle Deadwyler and Dolly De Leon, who, when combined, won 58% of the total of over 800 votes. We'll get to the Triangle of Sadness shipwreck survivor closer to the ceremony, but first, let's consider the lead of Chinonye Chukwu's sophomore feature. Playing Mamie Till Mobley, Deadwyler delivers a powerhouse performance tasked with sustaining a historical narrative so painful it's sometimes hard to watch…

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The glorious Danielle Deadwyler in "Till"

by Nathaniel R

Danielle Deadwyler in "Till"

Often times Oscar buzz arrives before a performance seen on the basis that the role will be a) meaty b) important-feeling and c) feature typically awards-friendly elements. There's a reason this happens frequently. Voters of all awards bodies, not just the Academy, are sometimes guilty of awarding the role in question rather than thinking about what the actor actually did with their big opportunity. The unfortunate byproduct of this is that sometimes, no matter how much an actor elevates it, people might assume "well, it was the role". In these scenarios even the enthusiasm around the performance can feel a little rote because it's expected. It arguably happens with most biopic roles now. The role of Mamie Till-Mobely, the mother of Emmett Till who channeled her grief at her son's murder into Civil Rights activism, meets all those pre-release requirements for buzz and a likely nomination even if Danielle Deadwyler hadn't been incredible. The very good news is that she most definitely is...

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"Till" Trailer and Director's Notes

by Nathaniel R

United Artists has released the trailer for Till, which begins its platform release on October 7th, 2022. The new feature film documents the long determined journey of Mamie Till-Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler) as she sought justice for the lynching of her 14 year-old son Emmett Till which occurred on a 1955 trip to visit his cousins in Mississippi. Through her determination her son's murder raised major awareness of social injustice and racism and became a major catalyst in the then nascent Civil Rights Movement. Emmett Till's death has inspired or been referenced in multiple books, poems, plays, movies, and television episodes. Documentaries and shorts about Emmett Till and his family have also been made but, as far as we can tell, Till is the first narrative feature film adaptation. Might it be heading to Oscar nominations?

We had the pleasure of attending a conversation with the director Chinonye Chukwu about the film last week. Highlights from that conversation and the Till trailer are after the jump...

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Interview: Chinonye Chukwu on 'Clemency' and Alfre Woodard's astounding close-ups

by Murtada Elfadl

Anchored by a staggering performance from Alfre Woodard, Clemency is a powerful, precise and scorching indictment of capital punishment. We follow Woodard as prison warden Bernadine Williams, as she prepares to execute another inmate (Aldis Hodge), and deal with the toll, years of carrying out death row executions have taken on her life and relationships. 

Director Chinonye Chukwu won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival last January. She started working on the film after Troy Davis was executed in a Georgia State prison in 2011, when “the sounds of the hundreds of  thousands who protested against his execution kept ringing in my ears, and I couldn’t help but wonder: if so many of us struggled with what had happened to Mr. Davis, what about the people who actually had to carry out his execution? What if some of them were also grappling with having to kill this man?”

We recently met with Chukwu in New York. [This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.] 

Murtada Elfadl: Congratulations on the film. You start your movie with an execution, you end it with an execution. So it's these two bookends. That was a bold, strong choice. Can you talk about why you made that choice?

Chinonye Chukwu: I did that for a couple of reasons. One, to show Bernadine's arc and that she's not in the same place at the end as she was at the beginning of the story. Also, I wanted to get at the cyclicalness of the space of a prison that with or without her, this cycle of capital punishment is going to go on.

This film is very performance driven. Did you write it with Alfre Woodard in mind?

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Another Look at 'Clemency'

by Murtada Elfadl

Hodge and Chukwu at ND/NF

Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency opened the New Directors/New Films fest in New York last night. I got the chance to see it again and any reservations I had about it went away. This is a new version that is tighter than the one I saw at Sundance. While the changes are miniscule, they really pull the film together and focus its story. At Sundance I praised the central performance of Alfre Woodard as a prison warden managing a prison that includes a death row. However I thought the film meandered and was repetitive.

Not anymore!

Now it centers Woodard’s dealing with the processing of one death row inmate (Aldis Hodge) and the forces both against him and defending him. The focus is still on the toll all this takes on the psyche of Woodard’s Bernadine; so she is still front and center and owns the film. What is around her now flows easier and the film’s message about capital punishment remains potent. Chukwu won Sundance grand jury prize making history as the first black woman to do so. Clemency announces her as an exciting new director.

Oscar Chances: Obviously Woodard is its biggest and perhaps only chance at Oscar. The performance is there and so are the critical plaudits, however she needs a patient release plan to allow the film to reach its audience (The Wife playbook if you will). Other than that I see this as a film that Gothams/Indie Spirits will fall in love with - with possible nominations for film, director and supporting actor (Aldis Hodge).