Just Mercy
Civil rights defense attorney Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan, Creed II) tries to free an innocent man (Jamie Foxx) from death row in this biopic based on Stephenson's memoir. Academy Award winner Brie Larson co-stars.
"Bryan Stevenson, a Harvard law graduate, turns his back on more comfortable and lucrative work, returning south to help prisoners in Monroe County, Alabama. With the help of Eva Ansley (Larson), a local equally committed to prisoner's rights, he sets up a small office to take on the most challenging of cases — death row inmates. It's 1989, but walking into the W.C. Holman Correctional Facility is like stepping back into the South before Civil Rights. Walter McMillian (Foxx) was arrested for killing a white woman, pushed through a shoddy trial, then deposited on death row, where he joined other desperate men who may or may not have committed the crimes that landed them there. The local authorities are actively indifferent to the truth of these men's cases, but Stevenson and Ansley are determined to hold the justice system accountable." (Toronto International Film Festival)
- Director:
- Destin Daniel Cretton ('The Glass Castle', 'Short Term 12', 'I Am Not a Hipster')
- Writer:
- Destin Daniel CrettonAndrew Lanham
- Cast:
- Michael B. JordanJamie FoxxBrie LarsonO'Shea Jackson Jr.Rafe SpallRob MorganTim Blake NelsonDrew Scheid
Reviews & comments
Just Right!
"Just Mercy" is an investment in raw emotion and a victory for the wrongfully accused against terrible injustice. It's not to be said that every man (or black man) on death row is blameless, but Destin Daniel Cretton's film takes a solid swipe not at the death penalty itself but at the clear and present breach of a system that has become draconian. More...
Sydney Morning Herald
pressStevenson was one of the film’s producers and its director, Hawaiian-born Destin Daniel Cretton, has fashioned a straightforward, if simplified, translation of his book, resisting any flourishes to concentrate on the facts, which is fair enough since they need no embellishment.
New Zealand Listener
pressJust Mercy heads into horrifying territory, and its moments of ritual humiliation are powerful, particularly when the injustice befalls characters you expect to be immune. Despite being less than the sum of its parts, Just Mercy delivers visceral scenes that ought to make your blood boil.
FilmInk
press....this legal drama manages to balance hard truths with an unwaveringly empathetic eye.
Screen Daily
pressAlthough conventional in its approach, the film is a forceful reckoning of a broken legal system.
Hollywood Reporter
pressA sturdy example of this genre, in which persistence and faith lead to the righting of terrible wrongs, it will likely move younger viewers who haven't seen many like it.
Variety
pressThere were moments you wish it was shorter. Yet if the chain of courtroom battles at the end spin around facts we already know, what's unpredictable is the human factor.
The Guardian
pressJust Mercy is a straightforward, no-frills drama that does have an undeniably emotive effect.
Collider
pressDestin Daniel Cretton's adaption of Bryan Stevenson's memoir is a populist cry to recognise racial injustice as systemic rather than interpersonal.
Los Angeles Times
press"Just Mercy" is a handsome, impeccably mounted tribute to his activism and also his fellow advocates.
Sydney Morning Herald
pressStevenson was one of the film’s producers and its director, Hawaiian-born Destin Daniel Cretton, has fashioned a straightforward, if simplified, translation of his book, resisting any flourishes to concentrate on the facts, which is fair enough since they need no embellishment.
New Zealand Listener
pressJust Mercy heads into horrifying territory, and its moments of ritual humiliation are powerful, particularly when the injustice befalls characters you expect to be immune. Despite being less than the sum of its parts, Just Mercy delivers visceral scenes that ought to make your blood boil.
FilmInk
press....this legal drama manages to balance hard truths with an unwaveringly empathetic eye.
Screen Daily
pressAlthough conventional in its approach, the film is a forceful reckoning of a broken legal system.
Hollywood Reporter
pressA sturdy example of this genre, in which persistence and faith lead to the righting of terrible wrongs, it will likely move younger viewers who haven't seen many like it.
Variety
pressThere were moments you wish it was shorter. Yet if the chain of courtroom battles at the end spin around facts we already know, what's unpredictable is the human factor.
The Guardian
pressJust Mercy is a straightforward, no-frills drama that does have an undeniably emotive effect.
Collider
pressDestin Daniel Cretton's adaption of Bryan Stevenson's memoir is a populist cry to recognise racial injustice as systemic rather than interpersonal.
Los Angeles Times
press"Just Mercy" is a handsome, impeccably mounted tribute to his activism and also his fellow advocates.
Just Right!
"Just Mercy" is an investment in raw emotion and a victory for the wrongfully accused against terrible injustice. It's not to be said that every man (or black man) on death row is blameless, but Destin Daniel Cretton's film takes a solid swipe not at the death penalty itself but at the clear and present breach of a system that has become draconian. More...
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