ALLIANCE OF WOMEN FILM JOURNALISTS

Female Film Critics 24/375

Danielle Deadwyler

Guest Posts Reviews 

ROOSTER – Review by Abby Perkins (Mentorship Program Critic)

Guest Post , , , , , , , , ,

Parents are supposed to help their children through all of life’s struggles, especially the struggles they’ve been through themselves. However, what do you do when your child faces their biggest obstacle but you have no advice for them, since you aren’t close to getting over the same obstacle you’ve faced yourself? Rooster follows beach-read author Greg Russo (Steve Carrell), who is spending time at his alma mater after Katie, his daughter and a professor at the college, is left by her grad-student-banging husband. The HBO series’ pilot, shows a father and daughter, riddled with their own insecurities and personal issues, realizing that they are both hot messes. Rooster reminds us that everyone is living life for the first time.

Read more
Reviews 

40 ACRES – Review by Lynn Venhaus

Lynn Venhaus , , , ,

Gritty and gripping, 40 Acres is set in a grim post-apocalyptic world where the battleground is a family farm. Those who have survived a famine and second Civil War are not fighting zombies, aliens or nuclear fallout, but other humans with self-preservation on their mind. At the onset, title cards tell us that a fungus pandemic killed 98% of the animal biosphere. That was 14 years earlier, thus sparked a food disaster, followed by a war two years later, then a global famine. The most precious commodity is farmland, where people can grow food. And people want it, at all costs.

Read more
Festivals Reviews 

40 ACRES (SXSW 2025) – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

Valerie Kalfrin , , , ,

Danielle Deadwyler brings her fiery intensity to 40 Acres, a postapocalyptic tale about a blended family’s survival after a devastating famine. Farmland has become a valuable resource roughly a decade after a fungal pandemic ripped society apart. Hailey Freeman (Deadwyler, The Piano Lesson), her husband, Galen (Michael Greyeyes, 1923), and their four children live on a farm that Hailey’s ancestors built after settling in rural Canada following the Civil War. Making his feature debut, director R. T. Thorne (The Lake) establishes decent suspense in early moments showing the family defending the homestead from marauders.

Read more
Reviews 

THE PIANO LESSON – Review by Diane Carson

Diane Carson , , , , , , , , , ,

Director Malcolm Washington’s adaptation of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson infuses humor as an uplifting complement to the incisive and insightful commentary on racism, family ties, spirituality, and profound but endangered friendships. Set during the Great Migration, centered on the revered, inherited piano, the family’s and friends’ reactions differ. Boy Willie wants to sell it for, to him, a noble purpose: the dream of owning his own land as a free man. His sister, young widow Berniece, cannot fathom such disrespect for the spirits embodied in and carved into this venerated piano. Events and subplots punctuate their conflict: a potential romance, drinking and playing cards, a visit to a lively bar, and, most significantly, the presence of a credibly malevolent ghost that haunts their history.

Read more
Festivals 

Middleburg FF 2024 Female Focus Wrap – Leslie Combemale reports

Leslie Combemale , , , , , , , , ,

The Middleburg Film Festival is one fest that has leaned into its support for female filmmakers from its inception 12 years ago. It has always not only premiered and featured a wide variety of female-helmed documentaries and narrative features from all over the world, it has also made sure to invite those filmmakers to the fest for panels and Q&As, so that fans, film lovers, and press can learn what inspired them and their unique process for their projects. 2024 is no different in terms of highlighting female filmmakers and craftspeople, although this year there were more filmmakers and below the line artists in residence than ever before.

Read more
Commentaries 

African-American Film Critics Association Awards – Nikki Fowler reports

Nikki Fowler , , , , ,

The African-American Film Critics Association’s (AAFCA) awards ceremony, held on March 1 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, marked a much-deserved moment of celebration for Black creators and actors who’ve been unexpectedly snubbed by other awards groups this year. Although no longer tagged as #OscarsSoWhite, the Academy Award nominations slate had glaring omissions of Black creatives and actors, including Gina-Prince Bythewood and The Woman King, Chinouye Chukwu and Till and Elegance Branton and The Inspection, and all of the brilliant talent associated with those and other superb Black films.

Read more
News 

WEEK IN WOMEN: PGA honors Chinonye Chukwu’s TILL with Stanley Kramer Award- Brandy McDonnell reports

Brandy McDonnell , , , , , , ,

The Producers Guild of America has named Chinonye Chukwu’s fact-based drama Till as its 2023 Stanley Kramer Award honoree. The Stanley Kramer Award lauds a production, producer, or other individuals whose achievement or contribution illuminates and raises public awareness of important social issues, the PGA revealed on Facebook. Producers Keith Beauchamp, Barbara Broccoli, Whoopi Goldberg, Thomas Levine, Michael Reilly and Frederick Zollo will share the honor at the ceremony at the 34th Annual Producers Guild Awards, scheduled for Feb. 25 at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California.

Read more
Reviews 

TILL – Review by Martha K Baker

Martha K. Baker (Archived Contributor) , , , ,

Till is a powerful movie. Its strength rises not just from the story of racism it tells, for the background story has been told often, and not just from its unique perspective, but also from its stunning presentation in film form. Till is about Mamie Till-Mobley — the mother, the mourner — more than about her murdered son. Till is a woman’s story. It catches the breath of life and demands attention.

Read more
Reviews 

TILL – Review by T.J. Callahan

T. J. Callahan , , , ,

Fourteen year old African American, Emmett Till was lynched in a small town in Mississippi back in 1955 because he told a white store clerk she looked like a movie star. His mother wasn’t going to sit back and watch her only child become a forgotten soul of racism. She fought back. And she fought back hard. Writer/Director Chinonye Chukwu gives us a gripping and empowering film that tells the story of Emmett through Mamie Till-Mobley’s eyes and heart. Till is a hard movie to watch. It’s the hard that makes it essential viewing.

Read more
News 

WEEK IN WOMEN: Chinonye Chukwu’s TILL premieres at NYFF opening weekend Brandy McDonnell reports

Brandy McDonnell , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chinonye Chukwu’s anticipated feature film Till will have its world premiere at the 60th New York Film Festival on opening weekend. The 60th New York Film Festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center, will take place Sept. 30-Oct. 16. Till” tells the true story of Mamie Till Mobley’s relentless pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son Emmett Till. In 1955, Emmett was lynched while visiting his cousins in Mississippi. In Mamie’s poignant journey of grief turned to action, audiences will witness the universal power of a mother’s courage and its ability to change the world.

Read more