Director: Beth de Araújo
Writer: Beth de Araújo
Stars: Mason Reeves, Channing Tatum, Gemma Chan
Synopsis: After 8-year-old Josephine accidentally witnesses a crime in Golden Gate Park, she acts out in search of a way to regain control of her safety, while adults are helpless to console her.
Witnessing a crime at any age alters a person, but the world just expects them to continue. But what happens when it’s a child who doesn’t have the vocabulary to even describe the crime they see? Beth de Araujo’s newest film, Josephine, is a shocking masterpiece that navigates the trauma an 8-year-old suffers after being a witness to a horrific sexual assault. A harrowing watch that teaches hard truths to swallow, especially for a young girl, about how bad things happen, no matter how fair they are or not. Based on events de Araujo experienced in her own life, Josephine shows a perspective rarely seen.
Josephine (Mason Reeves) is just like any young girl. She comes from a happy home with lovingly protective parents, Damien (Channing Tatum), and Claire (Gemma Chan). As the film opens early on a Sunday morning, Josephine and her dad are running through Golden State Park. When she gets slightly ahead and takes the wrong path at a fork, she finds herself near the park’s public restroom. She hides behind a tree when she sees Sandra (Syra McCarthy), a young woman in running gear, heading into the restroom. Only moments later, Greg (Philip Ettinger) quickly enters the restroom, and a struggle between Sandra and Greg spills out into the grass near Josephine. As Greg overcomes Sandra and knocks her unconscious briefly, he begins to graphically assault her as the 8-year-old sees every single second.
An unfortunate reality that many women learn is that sexual assault can happen to us all at some point, whether it is directly or happens to someone we know. But comprehension of these acts is hard to understand until we are older, and able to decipher what was consensual and what was not. That doesn’t stop these crimes from happening to young girls, and when they don’t have the vocabulary to put a name to an act, their perception of sex is altered. This makes it increasingly hard for them to heal from what they’ve seen, and in Josephine’s case, the word rape doesn’t even exist in her world. That’s until she snags her mother’s phone and searches for that exact word she overhears from her parents’ conversation, misspelling it as R-A-I-P. Her first encounter with adult concepts like sex comes from violence that blurs the line between both. And she begins to see Greg throughout her life as if he were in the same room with her at all times.
Her parents both have two different ways of dealing with their child, who is experiencing personality changes that get worse the further she gets from the day of the crime. Damien is a sports guy, instilling the idea that being scared is something you should overcome. He’d rather tell Josephine that something like that will never happen to her than accept the reality that it could. Claire, on the other hand, wants her daughter to accept that these things will happen, but when the conversation about the topic comes up, she finds it hard to talk about. Josephine is closer to her dad than her mother due to their shared love of sports, but as her physical training ramps up with self-defense classes, her rising anger comes to a boiling point several times.
Reeves is phenomenal in Josephine as the film’s titular character, marking her first film performance as one where the line between acting and a genuine reaction from a child is blurred. It’s a vulnerable and natural depiction of a girl trying her best to understand the lessons her parents taught her about fairness and the reality that not everyone will believe your truths. She can easily switch from being a curious and sweet kid to using her self-defense techniques to scare schoolyard bullies. What Reeves does in the film’s courtroom scene shows not only the bravery of her character, but of herself as well. Her frustrations left a lump in my throat as she exudes a sense of morality at a young age that is rarely seen in adults.
The film isn’t interested in showing you the right answers on how to handle this situation; it is honest in how it shows the impact of making a child hold this pain. Focusing on just how over their heads everyone is in handling Josephine and her outbursts, with her dad becoming more of a hothead over the course of the film, and her mother breaking down at nearly every question she is asked by her child. There’s no one there to talk to about what she’s feeling, or even what she’s seeing. Its personal script is unshakable, with de Araujo adding her lived experience. She creates a family dynamic that has you understand each perspective with their layered characterizations. These characters can go from enjoying a morning breakfast to getting into a heated argument about whether or not Josephine should be involved with the trial as the only witness. It highlights the lack of communication they have, and it’s refreshing to see a realistic approach to parenting during a crisis.
Jospehine is hard to watch at times, not only because of its subject matter, but also because of the way it is presented. The sexual assault is incredibly graphic, one of the most disturbing recreations of a film. For some, it’s going to be a huge turn-off, and it’s understandable because the film never shies away from the brutality of the crime. It leaves an impact that connects the viewer with Josephine, and makes us understand this from the mind of someone who is seeing something so violent. Often, cinematographer Greta Zozula puts us at the height of an 8-year-old, the height difference that adults have met drop to their level to see face-to-face. Zozula’s lens rotates often to see each character react to situations, like a conversation with the police, capturing Damien, Claire, and Josephine when their testimony is requested.
Ultimately, Josephine is a masterfully made commentary on how children are expected to handle pain when they don’t understand the cause. Packed with career best work from Tatum, Chan, and one knockout of a debut performance from Reeves; there’s never a wasted moment of screen time. Used from the writer and director’s life experience that shakes us to our core, Josephine is a feat of indie filmmaking that shows the power of female filmmakers’ voices.
