Best Actress • Cynthia Erivo Best Song • “Stand Up”
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EXTRA EDITION BEST PIC/ACTOR/ DIRECTOR/ WRITER GOLDEN GLOBE® AWARD NOMINEE • ©HFPA BEST ACTRESS DRAMA CYNTHIA ERIVO BEST ORIGINAL SONG • “STAND UP” SCREEN ACTORS GUILD AWARDS® NOMINEE © 1995 SAG-AFTRA OUTSTANDING ACTRESS CYNTHIA ERIVO CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARD NOMINEE BEST ACTRESS • CYNTHIA ERIVO BEST SONG • “STAND UP” WINNER WINNER BEST ORIGINAL SONG BEST ACTRESS “Stand Up” Hollywood Breakout Actress Award Cynthia Erivo and Joshuah Brian Campbell Cynthia Erivo Hollywood Music in Media Awards Hollywood Film Awards “A rousing and powerful drama anchored by Erivo’s precise and passionate performance.” A.O. Scott FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION JANUARY 3, 2020 ADVERTISEMENT 0103 EE VERSION A - FOCUS HARRIET - CVR1.indd 1 12/27/19 11:33 AM YEARS CONTENDERS Say His ‘Name’ EDDIE MURPHY HAD A BANNER 2019 BETWEEN ‘DOLEMITE IS MY NAME’ AND HIS RETURN TO ‘SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE.’ Lovingly hand-made by , the studio that created AND Untitled-5 1 12/27/19 11:34 AM — TORONTOTORONTO FILM CRITICS ASSOCIATION, ASSOCIATION LAS VEGASVEGAS FILM CRITICS SOCIETY ForFFoor moremmooree oonn tththishiss extraordinaryextxtraraororddiinaaryy ffilmililm aanandd a sscschedulechheeddulele ooff whwwhereherere yoyyouu ccacanan sseseeee iitt ggoo toto missinglinkguilds.commimisssiinnglg iinnkgkguiuildldss..ccoom. AlsoAAlsoso availableavav illabblee toto stsstreamrereamm nnowowow oonn Untitled-5 2 12/27/19 11:34 AM TOP BILLING ON THE LAM Jodie Turner-Smith and Daniel Kaluuya star in “Queen & Slim.” Protest Art GENIUS EXISTS IN ANYONE skillful enough to turn a nightmare Tinder date into a political Finds Receptive protest about Black America’s fate. “Queen & Slim” develops a world in which the unarmed black man isn’t murdered by a police officer. Instead, he, the titular Slim (Daniel Kaluuya), Audience shoots a cop in self-defense and goes on the run with his Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith). Art isn’t created in a vacuum. Television WHAT ‘QUEEN & SLIM’ MEANS FOR THE shows such as “Black-ish,” “Being Mary Jane” and “Atlanta” have incorporated police brutal- POST-#BLACKLIVESMATTER GENRE ity into individual episodes, rendering conversa- tions digestible and part of everyday black life. By LaTesha Harris (COVER) PHOTOGRAPH BY ART STREIBER (THIS PAGE) CAMPBELL ADDY/UNIVERSAL PICTURES ADDY/UNIVERSAL CAMPBELL (THIS PAGE) STREIBER ART BY PHOTOGRAPH (COVER) 6 VARIETY.COM “Stewart is off the charts...She’s among the greatest actresses of our day” Untitled-2 1 12/27/19 11:28 AM TOP BILLING Several recent films centering on black sto- people who maybe aren’t black, aren’t brown, “Films open eyes, but you ries — “Clemency,” “Harriet” and “Just Mercy” it’s a thing that may be difficult for them to — also address this systemic violence. These relate to. So what I was really trying to do with have to do it by being are necessary stories about African-American the film, I’m gonna put them in our shoes and honest and authentic.” issues, especially in light of such movements say, ‘This is how it feels.’” as #WhiteLivesMatter or #NotAllCops. Round- “Queen & Slim” achieves exactly that with a George Tillman ing out the conversation with 2018’s “Of Mon- tense traffic stop straight from the headlines. sters and Men” and 2019’s “Black and Blue,” a After the cop is shot, the film’s stakes are laid post-#BlackLivesMatter genre is emerging. out in three lines: Creating a feature film about the topic is “You’re a black man that killed a cop and then risky: Black audiences already live it and oth- took his gun,” says Queen, aka Angela Johnson. ers may not want to see it. “I’m not a criminal,” says Slim, aka Ernest Hines. That wasn’t a concern for screenwriter Lena “You are now.” Waithe. “We wrote this for black people. Period. Criminality is subjective, a label determined So if other folks want to come and listen in, by the state. Race is a factor, gender a modifier. they’re welcome,” Waithe told Variety before the Context doesn’t matter. It’s a parallel that any- film’s debut. “Even though I don’t necessarily one who’s been paying attention will understand. vs. godless direction, ’hood versus respectable, know some of these [victims of police brutality], The film’s director, Melina Matsoukas, created excellence vs. existence. I know them. And I feel like we’re a part of the it as a “love letter to blackness.” Indeed, “Queen However, every thread for discussion becomes same family, and I feel like a piece of me dies & Slim” highlights the complexity of black a moot point with the film’s ending, in which when I see these news stories. And I don’t think identity: working class vs. upper class, piety greed-driven state violence turns the couple into martyrs, strengthening the black commu- nity while broadcast news tells a false narrative of armed threats. Shelleen M. Greene, associate professor of cin- ema and media studies at UCLA, praised the film’s images and potential for interpretation. “Queen and Slim become mythical, legends. For me, the film was about how black people survive and find joy amidst institutional vio- lence; we don’t have to sacrifice beauty even when we’re talking about extremely difficult things,” Greene tells Variety. “The visuals inter- rogate. The actual use of the dashcam or the mobile phone, the ways in which we’ve become accustomed to capturing scenes of violence, the way they test the truth.” The film is beautifully shot and composed; Matsoukas’ background as a photographer and music video director pays off. But for Afri- can-American audiences, the emotional trauma can be overwhelming. When 20% of the people shot and killed by police officers in 2019 alone were black men, according to a Washington Post database of police shootings, why would black moviegoers pay to leave a theater feeling as disheartened as they would if they turned on the news? Filmmaker Julie Dash offers a reason why these stories carry much more weight and con- text in a feature film: “Matsoukas has crafted a film that’s not only something new; it’s unde- niably something more — an unexpected bap- tism, through cinematic displays of images that haunt us long after she fades to black. “More than a genre road picture, Matsoukas paints a picture of a resistance march, where black bodies are forced to negotiate life and death while navigating the highways and back- roads of America.” The developing post-#BLM genre was given a jump-start in 2018 with “Hate U Give,” starring Amandla Stenberg. Director George Tillman Jr. POST #BLM GENRE “Just Mercy” (above) and took a “character-first” approach to his story “Clemency” (right) about police brutality. JUST MERCY: WARNER BROS.; CLEMENCY: NEON BROS.; CLEMENCY: WARNER MERCY: JUST 8 VARIETY.COM FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES 3 GOLDEN GLOBE® NOMINATIONS INCLUDING DRAMA BEST DIRECTOR BEST PICTURE SAM MENDES CRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDS NOMINATIONS INCLUDING BEST DIRECTOR 8BEST PICTURE SAM MENDES THE BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR IS A STAGGERING PIECE OF FILMMAKING. A CINEMATIC WALLOP YOU NEVER SAW COMING. SYMPHONIC, BOLD AND EMOTIONAL. A TWO-HOUR TIGHTROPE WALK. Untitled-6 1 12/27/19 11:35 AM TOP BILLING FIGHT ON Cynthia Erivo stars in “Harriet,” about the abolitionist Harriet Tubman. “We see all these shootings on the news and clearly inspiring Hollywood creatives. But names “Even though read about them in articles, but we don’t know such as Ariane Lamont McCree and Dante Red- how people who are actually affected by it I don’t necessarily mond Jones, both of whom died in officer-re- deal with it,” Tillman tells Variety. “Racism and know some of lated shootings in November, fail to get national police brutality are systematic issues. These are traction in the news. things that have been passed down for years these victims, I Ultimately, Queen and Slim take on the and years from slavery and KKK programming. know them. I feel responsibility of being stand-in characters for All of that goes into the neighborhood and the these stories, acting as memorable examples community. Film opens eyes, but you have to do we are all part of when news is forgotten. it by being honest and authentic.” the same family.” “Queen & Slim,” as the strongest entry in the Tillman’s film raises an important point: post-#BLM genre to date, widens the gates for audiences can feel outrage by an immediate vio- Lena Waithe more films centered on police brutality, inviting lent transgression, but they forget that the real witness to real-life truths. Despite all critiques world requires action, not platitudes on Twitter. that could be applied to it, the film opens a con- The deaths of Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Eric versation. A labor of love with extreme nuances Garner and Michael Brown drove the message and various interpretations, “Queen & Slim” is one of #BlackLivesMatter into everyday conversation, of the most thought-provoking films of 2019. GLEN WILSON/FOCUS FEATURES 10 VARIETY.COM Untitled-1 1 12/27/19 11:27 AM Untitled-1 2 12/27/19 11:27 AM TOP BILLING Healing FROM THE MOMENT I LEARNED that “Honey Boy” explored a complex father-child relation- ship — how pain and abuse can transcend generations — I knew that interviewing Shia Power of ‘Honey’ LaBeouf would be an emotional experience for me. I just never expected it to change me. WHAT SHIA LABEOUF TAUGHT ME, A FELLOW TRAUMA As someone who’s exhaustively dissected her own father-child dynamic, I felt the gravity VICTIM, ABOUT EMPATHY AND FORGIVENESS of this personally important topic. But mostly, I felt shaken because speaking with LaBeouf By Jasmin Rosemberg about “Honey Boy” meant confronting my own family history of trauma. I knew LaBeouf had written this mostly true account of an alcoholic father and child star while undergoing therapy in rehab for his own struggles.