Mouthpiece (film)
Mouthpiece is a 2018 Canadian drama film directed by Patricia Rozema. Based on the theatrical play by Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava, the film centres on Cassandra, a woman who is making the arrangements for her mother's funeral. Cassandra is played by both Nostbakken and Sadava, as a dramatization of her inner conflict. The film's cast also includes Ari Cohen, Ishan Davé, David Kohlsmith, Paloma Nuñez, and Maev Beaty. It premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Plot. A young writer, Cassandra, struggles to write a eulogy for her late mother, Elaine, who gave up  her career to raise her children. Reception. On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, and an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads, ""Mouthpiece" interrogates gender norms with wit and ingenuity, portraying its main character's inner conflict through a pair of separate performances." Glenn Sumi of "Now" gave the film a 4/5 rating, writing, "[Patricia] Rozema's version of Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava's award-winning stage play does more than just open the work up; it fills in key bits of information, shows us Cassandra out  and about in Toronto and gives everything an affecting emotional resonance." Scott Tobias of "Variety" called it "a thoughtful interrogation of modern womanhood, leavened by gallows humor." Pamela Hutchinson of "Sight & Sound" wrote: "While the script's cleverness and wordplay betray its stage origins, it's bracingly sharp, and explicitly a feminist text." In December 2018, the Toronto International Film Festival named the film to its annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list.