Till: Il coraggio di una madre

Though certainly not a perfectly crafted film, Till is stuffed with powerhouse performances and scenes that I couldn't take my eyes off of.

Danielle Deadwyler gives potentially the most engrossing, beautifully heart-wrenching performance I have beheld this year. She disappears into the role and becomes the grieving mother who was Mamie Till. She channels all of the proper emotions at all of the proper times. Sorrow, regret, compassion, hope-all of them and more are tangible in this woman as we follow her journey.

What elevates the emotional core of the story even more is the impressive directing. There are impressively long takes and varied shot composition that always appear meticulously planned and crafted for the purpose of highlighting the actors and allowing them to shine, as they all deliver their dialogue with incredible sympathetic power.

I usually don't rant and rave about musical scores, as I find most of them just serviceable. This one deserves recognition. The music is used surprisingly sparingly, never drowning out the human interactions. But when it's heard, it instils both melancholy and hope into the film, which is exactly what the story is ultimately about.

But, like just about every biopic, Till has its issues, though the ones found here are relatively minor.

For one thing, though the long takes are impressive and allow emotions to linger, they're often too long. A great deal of shots linger way longer than they need to, and scenes carry on beyond the time that their point was made. It hurts the pacing considerably.

And while I did admire the script's attempt to include a great deal of real-life characters and plot points for the sake of integrity and uncomfortable honesty, it also hurts the pacing, as quite a few of them inevitably need to be rushed through with little-to-no impact on the larger picture. This is almost always a problem with biopics, which is why I think most of them should have been TV miniseries instead.

Till has a great deal more depth and care put into it than I was expecting, and I applaud its ambitious reach, as it does grasp the vast majority of what it reaches for.

Till is essential but deeply harrowing viewing.

It follows the events and aftermath of the lynching of young Emmet Till and the dogged pursuit of justice by his mother.

As you can imagine, the story is incredibly disturbing. It is not an easy watch at all. It is important to note that the violent acts themselves are not shown on screen, however the truly shocking aftermath is shown and this is an image that will never leave you.

I don't think much more needs to be said about the story. It speaks for itself and is full of impact, feeling, raw emotion, and power.

This is backed up by the brilliant performances. Jayln Hall is superb in capturing the boyish charm and excitement of young Emmett. But really this film is all about Danielle Deadwyler as his mother, Mamie. She is superb. Her performance will break your heart.

An essential film that must be watched.

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." Desmond Tutu

"Handle with Care" could have been on the cover of the script for Till, but it wasn't necessary because director Chinonye Chukwu, following her Sundance-winning Clemency, crafts her gentle but powerful depiction of 14-year-old Emmett Till's Mississippi lynching in 1955 and the subsequent trial of two white men. This docudrama not only does justice to the tragedy, but it also shows the death's influence on the 1967 Civil Rights Act.

Mamie Till-Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler in a sure-to-be-Oscar nominated performance) fights to have her son's brutalized body shown to the public, and it was shown, and like the movie itself, unforgettable. The film shoots this struggle in bright color as if to proclaim the horror vividly to the world. While strong black men recoiled from facing down white supremacists, Mamie never backed down in her attempt to bring justice for her son and expose the bigotry that exists even today.

While sometimes the music is heavy-handed and the courtroom drama veers to conventionality, never does the script waver from an even-keeled tempo, that like the Civil Rights Movement itself edges inexorably to success, the only possible outcome when justice is on its side. Although the material may be too emotionally sensitive for some, most will appreciate the unsentimental, unsensational, respectful delivery.

Emmett's famously bloated and disfigured face haunted us almost 70 years ago from the pages of Jet magazine, and it is no less disturbing now in Till. It's just that we have matured enough to face down realism for the greater good of facing down racism.

"We do the best we can." Mamie

One of the year's best movies.

Although this is a good film about such an important event, I can't help but feel it doesn't capture the audience as it needed to?... I was left feeling very frustrated at the fact you watchin ed as a matter of course rather than feel involved in the situation and the strength of feelings running so highly Why did the director not let the viewer see the horrors of what took place in that barn?..it was the key to the whole history of what happened, not only to this young man but many many others at this time in history!

I can't help but feel that although you may mention this film to a friend!...will you talk about it in six months?... I doubt it... will it be remembered for what it should have been...not at all!!... Better direction who knows how to engage the viewer could have improved this movie massively....

There was a bit of a dust up after the 2022 Oscar nominations were announced and neither Viola Davis (for "The Woman King") or Danielle Deadwyler (for "Till) had made it onto the final list for Best Actress. Both actresses were vocal about their disappointment and were quick to accuse the academy (and industry at large) of racism. I rolled my eyes a bit at Viola Davis, not because I don't think racism is as much a problem in Hollywood as anywhere else, but because of her particular example. Davis has been nominated four times and won once. Who knows what parts she is or isn't getting because she's a black woman, but it certainly doesn't seem like the industry is shunning her. Plus there was nothing Oscar worthy about "The Woman King," Davis included.

I hadn't seen "Till" at the time, so I didn't have an opinion. But now that I have, it does seem pretty egregious that Deadwyler was overlooked, especially when Michelle Williams made it in for her mannered and nearly bad performance in "The Fabelmans," which had the additional insult of not even feeling like a leading role. Was Deadwyler excluded because of anti-black sentiment, or was it just that she's a relatively unknown actress in a downer movie not many people wanted to watch? I don't know. But what I do know is that she is sensational in the movie, and is easily its best asset.

This is a hard, hard movie to watch. It does not shrink from the horror of what happened to Emmett Till, but it also manages to avoid exploitation vibes. Deadwyler is fierce as Till's mother, who took her grief and rage and channeled it into championing the civil rights movement, probably to keep from going insane from the injustice. This movie made me so angry, and gave me no outlet for my anger. It's stomach churning that the people who murdered Emmett Till, including the woman who falsely accused him of misconduct, never faced any consequences for their actions. And one thing I liked most about the movie is its refusal to cast Till's mother as a saintly do-gooder who's able to rise above her anger and find forgiveness. She doesn't forgive anybody. She wants revenge on the people who murdered her son, but knows she can't get it, at least not in the way she would like to. That felt much more human to me than idealizing her as a martyr.

I can forgive people for not wanting to watch this, because we all know the outcome in advance and it's so depressing. And I sat on it for quite a while before I mustered up the energy to pop it in. But I was glad I did.

Grade: A.