Till

***Till*** is a 2022 biographical drama film directed by Chinonye Chukwu and written by Michael Reilly, Keith Beauchamp, and Chukwu, and produced by Beauchamp, Reilly, and Whoopi Goldberg. It is based on the true story of Mamie Till-Bradley, an educator and activist who pursued justice after the murder of her 14-year-old son Emmett in August 1955. The film stars Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie and Jalyn Hall as Emmett. Kevin Carroll, Frankie Faison, Haley Bennett, Jayme Lawson, Tosin Cole, Sean Patrick Thomas, John Douglas Thompson, Roger Guenveur Smith, and Goldberg also appear in supporting roles.

## Plot

The film follows Mamie's journey of grief turned to action as she seeks to expose the racism behind the attack on her son and to have those involved brought to justice. The film depicts Emmett's life in Chicago before he leaves to visit relatives in Money, Mississippi, where he is accused of flirting with a white woman named Carolyn Bryant at a grocery store. He is then abducted by Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam, who brutally beat him, shoot him in the head, and dump his body in the Tallahatchie River. Mamie insists on having an open-casket funeral for her son to show the world what they did to him. She also testifies at the trial of Bryant and Milam, who are acquitted by an all-white jury despite overwhelming evidence of their guilt. Mamie continues to fight for justice by speaking out against lynching and racial violence across the country and inspiring the civil rights movement.

## Cast

* Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till
* Jalyn Hall as Emmett Till, Mamie's deceased son.
* Kevin Carroll as Rayfield Mooty, a member of Civil Rights activism organization NAACP.
* Frankie Faison as John Carthan, Mamie's father and Emmett's grandfather.
* Haley Bennett as Carolyn Bryant, a 21-year-old Southern shopkeeper whose accusations led to Emmett's murder.
* Jayme Lawson as Myrlie Evers, an NAACP member and Medgar's wife.
* Tosin Cole as Medgar Evers, an NAACP member and Myrlie's husband.
* Sean Patrick Thomas as Gene Mobley, Mamie's boyfriend and eventual husband who is also a father figure to Emmett.
* John Douglas Thompson as Mose "Preacher" Wright, Emmett's uncle and Elizabeth's husband.
* Roger Guenveur Smith as T.R.M. Howard, the head of the Regional Council.
* Whoopi Goldberg as Alma Carthan, Mamie's mother and Emmett's grandmother.
* Keisha Tillis as Elizabeth Wright, Emmett's aunt and Mose's wife.
* Marc Collins as Wheeler Parker, Emmett's cousin.
* Diallo Thompson as Maurice Wright, Emmett's cousin.
* Tyrik Johnson as Simeon "Simmy" Wright, Emmett's youngest cousin.
* Keith Arthur Bolden as William Huff, the leader of the NAACP chapter in Chicago.
* Darian Rolle as Willie Reed, a black man who was an eyewitness to Emmett's murder.
* Sean Michael Weber as Roy Bryant, Carolyn's husband and one of the men who kidnapped and murdered Emmett.
* Eric Whitten as John William "J.W." Milam, one of the men who kidnapped and murdered Emmett.

## Production

The film was officially announced in August 2020, though a project about Emmett Till's murder had been in the works for several years prior. Much of the main cast joined the following summer, and filming took place in Bartow County, Georgia that fall. It is the second major media property based on Mamie Till to be released in 2022, following the television series *Women of the Movement*. The film is dedicated in memory of Mamie Till's life and legacy and its release coincided with the October 2022 unveiling of a statue in Emmett Till's memory in Greenwood, Mississippi.

## Release

The film had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival on October 1, 2022, was theatrically released in the United States on October 14, 2022, by United Artists Releasing, and was released in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2023, by Universal Pictures. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised Deadwyler's performance as Mamie and Chukwu's direction. The film was named one of the best films of 2022 by the National Board of Review and was nominated for one BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Deadwyler.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 191 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads, "*Till* reframes an historically horrific murder within a mother's grief, brought heartwrenchingly to life by Danielle Deadwyler's tremendous performance." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".