Accolades All Around
Sumerian Pictures has just released a suspenseful new trailer for Josephine. The movie has received a lot of positive reactions and while the trailer prepares you for an intense character journey, it proudly displays that critics are raining praise on all lead stars — Mason Reeves, Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan. A critic quote even calls Reeves’ work on the film as “one of the great child performances of the decade.” Josephine also went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for the Dramatic Competition at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
What’s Josephine about?
Here’s the official synopsis for Josephine, courtesy of Sundance:
After 8-year-old Josephine accidentally witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park, she acts out in search of a way to regain control of her safety, while adults are helpless to console her. The film stars Mason Reeves, Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan, Philip Ettinger, Syra McCarthy, and Eleanore Pienta.
What did we think about Josephine?
Our Sundance veteran, Chris Bumbray, recently returned from the festival and, while there, experienced Beth de Araújo’s Josephine in all its arresting and uncomfortable glory. Chris highlights the film’s powerful performances, making special mention of Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan as Josephine’s parents, saying they’re both terrific. He also highlights a stand-out performance by child actor Mason Reeves, whose portrayal of Josephine is grounded and arresting. If you check out his review, be wary of spoilery plot details that the trailer wants to keep hidden.
“The only problem with Josephine as a film is that its too often clinical approach makes it a hard watch,” Chris writes in his review. “Josephine clearly comes from a loving home, but there are no real scenes of warmth depicted after the [crime], and the movie rarely veers from hopelessness. It’s like Die My Love in that way, in that it’s so depressing that it occasionally feels like an endurance test. Even still, Josephine is a film that demands to be seen as it asks a lot of worthy questions […] and what duty, if any, a child like Josephine has in seeing that justice is done. It’s a harsh film, but a necessary one.”
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