Till

Grade: A-

7 months after the federal anti-lynching law was finally passed – after decades of failed attempts – comes Till, a gripping historical drama chronicling the life, death, trial, and general aftermath surrounding 14-year-old Emmett Till’s murder in August 1955. He is on his way to Mississippi from Chicago, to visit his cousins. His mother Mamie cautions him to “be small. They have a different set of rules for Negros down there.”

What leads to Till’s lynching and eventual killing in MS is because of a brief interaction with a white female convenience store employee. It’s innocuous, and would be a total non-event if it happened now. When his body is brought back home to Chicago, Mamie, when faced with the casket, in her full-on hysterical grief, repeatedly utters a phrase that made me think of something George Floyd famously said in the last few minutes of his life.

As Mamie, Atlanta-based actress Danielle Deadwyler gives one of the best performances of the year. This had to have been difficult material to dive into day after day on set, but she is not afraid to go there, and is mesmerizing to watch even when it makes us uncomfortable. Jalyn Hall, as Emmett, isn’t in much of the movie, but brings a dose of fun and innocence that makes his fate all the more heartbreaking. Haley Bennett (Cyrano, Hillbilly Elegy) is Carolyn Bryant, the cashier at the store, who ends up lying on the stand in the courtroom. Bennett is a recent favorite of mine, so this made me feel very conflicted. Bryant was never charged with anything, and is still alive and free at 88. Whoopi Goldberg as Mamie’s mother is memorable and a welcome familiar face in the cast. She once played Myrlie Evers, in a movie from 1996 called Ghosts of Mississippi. Goldberg’s presence here, in a movie that also features the Evers family, is a neat cinematic connection. And there are other Atlanta actors in this; I have passed out Altoids to some of them. It was exciting to see my friends Enoch King and Lowrey Brown.

Historical dramas and biopics are not my favorite genre, so any such movie is an uphill battle with me. I have often railed against the use of pre-closing-credit captions that tell us what happens to everybody. Till is that gem, that minor miracle, that had me not only HOPING for such captions (there are some), but also Googling details to find out more. It got me involved. Till is a powerful film with emotionally charged performances, that keeps its momentum and presents its unsettling subject matter with unapologetic bluntness. If it makes you angry, good. It should.

Grade: A-