Directed by Chinonye Chukwu
Starring Danielle Deadwyler, Jalyn Hall, Whoopi Goldberg, Haley Bennett, John Douglas Thompson, Frankie Faison, and Keith Arthur Bolden

Many thoughts and emotions immediately followed me upon exiting the cinema screening of Till I attended. One of which was the fact that while it is only March, this near faultless and absolute powerhouse of a movie could very well end up being the best film of 2023. Another was how the very heck did Till get completely snubbed and receive zero nominations at the 95th Academy Awards ®?

Well then, stop what you are doing and do not watch another film until you have seen Till.

They say ignorance is bliss. For 14 year-old Emmett Till, ignorance was brutality and ultimately led to his tragic death. Though these harrowing real-life events occurred in 1955, Till depicts a sadly familiar fight for justice for people of colour that still echoes 70 years on throughout the United States and around the World.

As we learn from single mum and mother of Emmett, Mamie, there are a very different set of rules that exist for people of colour to strictly abide by when in the southern state of Mississippi compared to their home in Chicago. Mamie (Danielle Deadwyler) is acutely aware of this fact as she is equally concerned of her son’s naivety in the lead-up to a one week stay with his cousin and her uncle to pick cotton. Shortly before his train trip, Mamma sternly warns her boy that certain things you can say and do in Chicago cannot be said or done in Mississippi. She also provides him clear instructions how to respond and comply if finding himself in an unfavourable position with a white person. Despite her best efforts to afford her son some freedom and equip him with essential knowledge to safely experience that freedom, an innocent remark directed at a white female in a store ultimately finds itself in the hands of some hateful and racist locals and has tragic consequences.

Propelled by 27 years’ worth of research that led to the reopening of Till’s case by the United States Department of Justice in 2004, Till is an insightful and an impossibly involving account of the numerous obstacles and injustices one black mother must confront and surmount in the face of unfathomable horror to make the perpetrators of her son’s death accountable in some way. 

Each and every step of Mamie’s nightmarish ordeal expectedly and increasingly saddens and incenses viewers, just as it should, yet Till also succeeds enormously at illustrating where Mamie finds her inspiring strength and bravery to stand, speak and fight. Whether she is simply trying to return the body of her son home to Chicago, discussing her vulnerabilities before going public with her son’s case or grappling with the public utilisation of her son’s murder to tackle a much broader issue affecting people of colour all throughout America, there is always this inspiring strength at her core that stands above all else. 

The inexplicably Oscars-shunned performance from an actress I hadn’t even heard of prior to this film is something truly special. Danielle Deadwyler exhibits masterful control over every facet of her character and emotion she experiences. In the film’s most confronting and extraordinarily upsetting scenes where over-acting or a lack of control could have easily and forgivably occurred, Danielle Deadwyler carefully and confidently curates the changing conduct of her character to sublime perfection and won’t leave a dry eye in the room in doing so.

The impassioned directing from Chinonye Chukwu never loses focus, even if it does push its clear agenda too far during earlier stages of the film. Nevertheless, in a category at the Academy Awards ® that has yet again excluded females from its male exclusive list, I certainly believe that Chinonye Chukwu manages the portrayal of this gripping and significant story close to perfect and deserves a nomination. She has made a film that I hold in the same regard as similarly themed dramas Just Mercy and The Hate U Give.

Till is showing in cinemas across Australia from March 9th.

Moviedoc thanks Universal Pictures for the invite to the screening of this film.

Review by Leigh for Moviedoc

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