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Clemency

2019

Chinonye Chukwu

Alfre Woodard, Aldis Hodge, Richard Schiff, LaMonica Garrett ...

5.8

625

Drama Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard) is a prison warden who, over the years, has been drifting away from her husband while dutifully carrying out executions in a maximum security prison. When she strikes up a unique bond with death-row inmate Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge), a layer of emotional skin is peeled back, forcing Bernadine to confront the complex—and often contradictory—relationship between good intentions, unrequited desires, and ... [+]

	Media	Author	Review
		Eric Kohn IndieWire	"A mature star-driven vehicle elevated by a brilliant performance [by Woodard] that deserves all the awards it can get (...) Chukwu maintains an impressive command over her material"
		Manohla Dargis The New York Times	"Sometimes acting seems like possession. That’s how Alfre Woodard’s performance in 'Clemency' feels as she violently sweeps you up with the force of her talent."
		Amy Nicholson Variety	"[A] moving death penalty drama (...) If Chukwu just wants the audience to witness Bernadine’s burden, the script overplays its hand by questioning Anthony’s guilty conviction"
		David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"It's the humanity and compassion invested across all the principal characters that makes this contemplative examination of the terrible weight of taking a life so commanding"
		Gregory Ellwood The Playlist	"Too many scenes simply remain on a character sitting somewhere for an interminable amount of time (...) Woodard is too good to not have this performance seen by the masses"
		Justin Chang Los Angeles Times	"Woodard and Hodge succeed in infusing even their tersest exchanges (...) with an almost subterranean depth of emotion (...) The intensity of their dynamic burns away some of 'Clemency’s' occasional missteps"
		Matt Fagerholm rogerebert.com	"This is screen acting of a very rare sort, and 'Clemency' is a vital emotional powerhouse sorely deserving of being seen (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"
		Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"If you want to see what great acting is, watch Alfre Woodard deliver a master class in 'Clemency' (…) Rating: ★★★★½ (out of 5)"
		Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly	"'Clemency' does what few other movies about death row have, handling a thorny, infinitely complicated subject in terms that are neither moralizing nor melodramatic."
		Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"A bleakly effective character study (...) A nuanced, deeply felt performance [by Woodard] (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"

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