Female Film Critics 24/375
Stoic prison warden Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard) is psychologically and emotionally exhausted after years of overseeing death-row executions. Woodard delivers a masterfully restrained performance, but the film is excruciating to watch. The point is how enforcing the death penalty not only dehumanizes the condemned but also takes a spiritual toll on those who carry out the execution.
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Throughout her four-decade acting career, Woodard has garnered an Academy Award nomination, four Emmy Awards and two Golden Globes, but that doesn’t quite do justice to her practically preternatural skills as a performer.
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Clemency will leave you asking can one find hope in other people’s decisions and are men in prison simply invisible because people refuse to see them? This is one of the best films released in 2019 and I am most proud to declare it was written and directed by a woman of color…Chinonye Chuckwu.
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