Another Look at 'Clemency'
Thursday, March 28, 2019 at 5:15PM 
Hodge and Chukwu at ND/NF
Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency opened the New Directors/New Films fest in New York last night. I got the chance to see it again and any reservations I had about it went away. This is a new version that is tighter than the one I saw at Sundance. While the changes are miniscule, they really pull the film together and focus its story. At Sundance I praised the central performance of Alfre Woodard as a prison warden managing a prison that includes a death row. However I thought the film meandered and was repetitive.
Not anymore!
Now it centers Woodard’s dealing with the processing of one death row inmate (Aldis Hodge) and the forces both against him and defending him. The focus is still on the toll all this takes on the psyche of Woodard’s Bernadine; so she is still front and center and owns the film. What is around her now flows easier and the film’s message about capital punishment remains potent. Chukwu won Sundance grand jury prize making history as the first black woman to do so. Clemency announces her as an exciting new director.
Oscar Chances: Obviously Woodard is its biggest and perhaps only chance at Oscar. The performance is there and so are the critical plaudits, however she needs a patient release plan to allow the film to reach its audience (The Wife playbook if you will). Other than that I see this as a film that Gothams/Indie Spirits will fall in love with - with possible nominations for film, director and supporting actor (Aldis Hodge).
Reader Comments (8)
so great to here that they trimmed a bit. More films should think carefully about themselves after festival premieres and read the room. Can't wait to see this.
If Glenn Close couldn’t win, Alfre Woodard can’t either
@Me
Woodard is in a better position to receive overdue recognition than say Angela Bassett. A number of reasons I don't care to get into. But the truth is they hate Glenn Close. No reason for every other precursor acting winner to sure up their category on Oscar night but her.
I would accept Close never winning a competitive Oscar if Woodard won a lead statue.
Lies.
I'd say what Woodard has in her favor that Glenn didn't is that her director will have her own narrative as an up and coming Sundance winning director. Plus Clemency will be more critically embraced. I'm not saying she's winning - it's March - but she is a contender.
Woodard's having a moment with this and Juanita, the best performance I've seen so far in this young year.
All this discussion of Glenn Close and yet nothing about how she showed up to Paul Schrader's Christmas dressed like a sheep!
Anyway, go Alfre, I can get behind this Oscar even if Saoirse is great this year.