Jess, on the other hand, is white as a snowflake bright-eyed, bushy-tailed, and rosy with good intentions. Working at a small firm that’s dedicated to pro-bono cases, Jess is introduced in a private meeting with an imprisoned teenage Latina mother whose violent streak - and inability to speak English - have made her extremely vulnerable to a court system that has very specific ideas of what a “good person” is supposed to look like. In fact, it takes some time before we so much as see Beth again, as Newton’s script puts her story on pause in order to introduce us to a fledgling lawyer named Jess ( Emma Roberts). We meet her on a snowy New York City afternoon as she drops in on a married couple with a gift for their smart young son.īeth’s unwelcomeness, and the gulping grimace with which she gives the boy his new jazz CD, is enough to convey that she’s probably his birth mother, but it will be a little while before we learn why she didn’t raise him herself (she was in jail), and a little while longer before we learn what her sister (Jess Weixler) has in mind for the kid’s future. The only thing we’re told about Nicholson’s character is that her name is Beth everything else we’re left to sort out - or pry out - for ourselves. It’s also a devastatingly authentic drama that’s as guarded and unforthcoming as its protagonist. Read More: The 2017 IndieWire TIFF Bible: Every Review, Interview, and News Item Posted During the Festival

But lo, this review brings good news for all the potential fans who have been failing the actress (and themselves) for far too long: There has never been a better showcase for her talents than “ Who We Are Now.” Told with the full texture of real life, Nicholson’s second collaboration with “From Nowhere” filmmaker Matthew Newton is a close-up character study that explores notions of forgiveness and self-worth with surgical precision. Now 46 years old and more compelling than ever, Nicholson is doing some of her best work at a point in her life when most actresses are being callously aged out of their careers.īut nobody can be told what makes Julianne Nicholson so great, you have to see it for yourself - she’s kind of like the Matrix in that way (a movie in which she regrettably wasn’t cast). ‘Percy Jackson and the Olympians’ Is the Epic Adaptation Series Deserves

Who we are now cast