This selection of reviews of Mouthpiece will give you a taste of why the film is so great. Grab your chance to see it through Book Club before the end of October.
Anyone who’s been following Seventh Row for the past few years will have heard us raving about Patricia Rozema’s Mouthpiece. Editor-in-Chief Alex Heeney saw it first, at its TIFF 2018 world premiere. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. She then made Executive Editor Orla Smith and Editor-at-Large Mary Angela Rowe watch the film, and they fell for it instantly. This is a bold, innovative, moving film about a thirtysomething woman’s feminist awakening in the wake of her mother’s death. It’s unlike anything you’ve seen before, and legendary Canadian director Patricia Rozema (I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing, Mansfield Park) directs it with the skill and daring of a master. That’s why we named it the best film of 2019 and the third best film of the 2010s.
Now you can watch the film too, wherever your are in the world, as we’ve partnered with First Generation Films for an exclusive, online screening of the film. You can watch it for free on our site from October 1st to 4th. If you’re outside Canada or North America, this may be your only chance to watch the film, since it never received international distribution. Alongside the screening, we’re hosting a watch party on Twitter this Friday at 5pm EST (follow along with #MouthpieceWatchParty) and we’re running a Lockdown Film School livestream with Patricia Rozema on Sunday.
Why is Mouthpiece a must-see? Don’t just take it from us. We’ve put together Mouthpiece reviews from our team and from critics and film lovers around the world who also love Mouthpiece.
Mary Angela Rowe, Seventh Row
Patricia Rozema’s Mouthpiece is intense and powerful — though at moments, incredibly funny. Mouthpiece covers three days with twentysomething Torontonian Cassandra, whose life is upended by the sudden death of her mother. As Cassandra bikes around Toronto getting supplies for the funeral (and avoiding writing the eulogy) she slowly realizes how much of her own life has been lived in reaction to her mother — and how much her mother’s choices were constrained by the patriarchy surrounding them.
What catapults Mouthpiece from a mordant, bittersweet comedy to a truly exceptional art house work is its conceit: in this otherwise realist film, Cassandra is played by two actors (Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava), often acting side by side. The actors alternate, parallel each other, and interact, showing us the contours of Cassandra’s internal conflict. Cassandra is a person, and therefore a lot of things at once. But she can only deal with her grief when she comes to ascribe the same internal complexity to her mother.
Alex Heeney, Seventh Row
As an adaptation from stage to screen, Mouthpiece is already a marvel: the way the action is set so specifically in recognizable Toronto haunts, the essential close ups revealing the characters’ vulnerability, and the flashbacks that feel so real you forget that the actresses who play grown up Cassandra (Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava) were rarely in the same room as their mother (Maev Beaty). And yet this film is so much more: a feminist statement about what it means to be a modern woman, the sacrifices made for career and family, the conflicting feelings of being a heterosexual woman who does not want to be controlled by the patriarchy, the way women police and perform for themselves, and the crippling nature of grief. I’ll be thinking about and rewatching this film for years to come.
Orla Smith, Seventh Row
Made by an almost all-female team, both behind and in front of the camera, Mouthpiece manages to be bold and innovative within the confines of an intimate character study. This moving exploration of Cassandra’s external and internal journey as she prepares for her mother’s funeral has stuck with me since I first saw it in late 2018. I’ve revisited it twice since, and both times have felt special, warm, and intimate, ultimately melting me down into a puddle of tears. It’s a film about the struggle to understand another person in all their complexity, in this case, Cassandra’s struggle to understand her mother. Ultimately, Mouthpiece is so moving because Cassandra learns to accept her mother in all her complications, and accept the fact that she’ll never fully understand every one of those complications.
Rebecca del Tufo, film programmer
Mouthpiece is a fascinating piece of work, exploring the duality (or, in fact, multi-faceted) nature of so many of us. The film considers a woman’s attitudes to her mother, life, feminism and all the uncertainties of existence. Without wanting to spoil the clever way it exposes the confusing nature of so much of what we feel and think – as the device used crept up on me in a very magical way – it subtly opens to its audience, and particularly women, a chance to reflect on our own natures, thoughts, fears and passions. It’s a film that gets under your skin in the very best way, and merits rewatching to tease out its nuances.
Per Mjølkeråen, NoPress
Patricia Rozema’s Mouthpiece is a special film! It displays an intelligence in the translation from stage to screen that is very rare, and the lead performances are among the best of the year. It’s a film that deserves to be talked about in depth, for its complexity in storytelling, dramatization and character development. Watch it!
Katie Walsh, LA Times
There’s no denying the bracing, honest nature of Mouthpiece, a truly revolutionary piece of filmmaking… Nostbakken and Sadava both play Cassandra, simultaneously, and initially, you wouldn’t guess this is a film about just one woman. You wonder if they’re best friends, lovers or sisters, but their movements are too synced, the moments they share too intimate. Nostbakken and Sadava have visually externalized the internal monologue, constantly swapping the role of who plays the Cassandra the world interacts with, and who plays the psyche.
Read the full Mouthpiece review…
Courtney Small, Cinema Axis
A defiant streak runs through Patricia Rozema’s Mouthpiece that feels more pronounced and pressing than in her previous works. Like a long brewing storm about to hit an unsuspecting town, there is a fury within the film that is riveting to observe… Finding inventive ways to present the various aspects of Cassie’s mind, Rozema’s film effectively conveys the complex mixture of emotions and thoughts that define what it means to be a woman in society. In doing so she makes Cassie feel like a living soul rather than merely a character in a film. Even when Mouthpiece drifts into brief moments of fantasy, one never loses sight of everything Cassie is going through.
Read the full Mouthpiece review…
Carly Maga, Toronto Star
While the theatre production relied on Nostbakken and Sadava’s intensely intricate physical and vocal choreography (and a bathtub — watch for its importance in the film too), Rozema (Mansfield Park, I’ve Heard the Mermaids Singing) uses these elements more sparsely to turn the story from a battle cry into a haunting, self-reflective dream that looks at the pressures and expectations women place on themselves and particularly on each other.
Read the full Mouthpiece review…
Elizabeth Weitzman, The Wrap
Ultimately, the filmmakers’ intention isn’t to throw us off but to invite us in, to encourage us to wonder: Is it really so strange for one woman to have two reactions to life? While Nostbakken’s Cassandra might be able to pull herself together for the outside world, Sadava’s might be quietly falling apart. Or Nostbakken’s Cassandra could be openly furious, while Sadava’s is able to gaze politely upon someone driving her crazy.
Read the full Mouthpiece review…
Pamela Hutchinson, Sight & Sound
Rozema’s achievement is to keep the two Cassandras, and a few dramatic revelations, constantly in flux. The result is a film that brandishes the messiness of self-doubt and self-contradiction, but uses that morass of emotions to unearth something very pertinent about the lives women live, and the lives they leave behind. Everything here, as loose as it appears, is meticulously controlled, down to the splash that notebook makes as it disappears into a tureen of soup.
Read the full Mouthpiece review…
Shelagh Rowan-Legg, ScreenAnarchy
An intimate film that takes its cue from the senses of touch and sight, and the memories these invoke and their lasting effect… At once a piece of rage and anger, fear and bereavement, love and affection, that is not only one of the best play-to-film adaptations I’ve seen, but a cinematic punch to the gut and simultaneous grip on the heart.
Read the full Mouthpiece review…
Jason Gorber, That Shelf
A moving, warm film that neither pulls its punches nor revels in misanthropy, MOUTHPIECE is an exceptional work, one that feels very much a perfect vehicle for the best of Rozema’s craft and proclivities. Thanks to an interesting performance hook that never grows tiresome, it’s a film born on stage but one that truly comes to life when realized for the big screen.
Read the full Mouthpiece review…
Scott Tobias, Variety
Mouthpiece digs deeply and personally into the roles women play, past and present, and how societal expectations can muddy up their individual desires. This profound loss forces Cass to understand and respect the choices her mother made — not just for Cass’ benefit, but her own — and it culminates in an elusive sense of peace.
Read the full Mouthpiece review…
Stream Mouthpiece, one of the best films of the decade
Up to and including October 31, we have exclusive streaming rights to Mouthpiece, which is otherwise completely unavailable outside of Canada and the US. The film is available to our Book Club members (Canada not included).
