Till (2022) * * *

Directed by:  Chinonye Chukwu

Starring:  Danielle Deadwyler, Jayln Hall, Whoopi Goldberg, Frankie Faison, Haley Bennett, Tosin Cole, Jayme Lawson, Sean Patrick Thomas

Till exists in the powerful moments its story must show us.  Emmett Till (Hall) was a fourteen-year-old brutally murdered in 1955 Mississippi.   The movie's opening scenes show Emmett as a loving boy with an affinity for music and dancing; a born entertainer.   His mother Mamie (Deadwyler) adores him and is terrified of his upcoming visit with family in Mississippi.   Emmett and his family live in Chicago, where Mamie holds down a good job with the Air Force and the threat of lynching isn't a way of life.   Emmett travels to Mississippi, encounters white shopowner Carolyn Bryant (Bennett) while buying candy in her store, and soon two white men (one of whom is Carolyn's husband) kidnap Emmett at gunpoint from his uncle's home in the middle of the night.   Emmett's crime?   Complimenting Mrs. Bryant and whistling at her.   

Mamie is alerted to the kidnapping and holds out hope, but reacts as any mother would when word of Emmett's murder makes it way to Chicago.   The local NAACP (and soon the national one) wants Mamie to utilize this opportunity to speak in favor of a federal anti-lynching law (which finally came to fruition in March 2022 under President Joe Biden).   Mamie, upon seeing Emmett's mutilated, almost unrecognizable body, tries to process her grief and anger while understanding she also must do right by others in hopes of them avoiding her son's fate.   Danielle Deadwyler's multi-faceted performance is one of sheer power and restraint.   Watch her as she answers questions in Emmett's murder trial, knowing that in a way she and Emmett are on trial as much as, or more so, than Emmett's accused killers.   Even if you don't know the eventual verdict, you sense the gears grinding in motion towards injustice. 

Some time later, following their acquittals, Emmett's killers admitted to their crimes in a magazine interview and received $4,000 for the story.   Meanwhile, Emmett's life was sadly snuffed out.   Upon leaving Till, I noticed the story didn't propel the outrage it should have, but then I reflected on its overall theme and placed things in perspective.   The story compels outrage, but it also seems to understand its people contemporaneously.   Mamie and the NAACP are resigned to the likelihood that Emmett's killer will go free and that Carolyn would not be punished for her part in the crime.   Till itself takes on the same feel, and in that manner it is effective, and it also baffles us how lynching only became a federal crime a mere seven months ago.   With Dr. Martin Luther King waiting in the wings, Emmett Till became a symbol of how civil rights legislation was not only essential, but inevitable.