Mouthpiece (film)


Mouthpiece is a 2018 Canadian drama film directed by Patricia Rozema. Based on the theatrical play by Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava, the film centres on Cassandra, a woman who is making the arrangements for her mother's funeral. Cassandra is played by both Nostbakken and Sadava, as a dramatization of her inner conflict.
The film's cast also includes Ari Cohen, Ishan Davé, David Kohlsmith, Paloma Nuñez, and Maev Beaty.
It premiered at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.

Plot

A young writer, Cassandra, struggles to write a eulogy for her late mother, Elaine, who gave up her career to raise her children.

Cast

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 78% based on 9 reviews, and an average rating of 7.8/10.
Glenn Sumi of Now gave the film a 4/5 rating, writing, " Rozema's version of Amy Nostbakken and Norah Sadava's award-winning stage play does more than just open the work up; it fills in key bits of information, shows us Cassandra out and about in Toronto and gives everything an affecting emotional resonance." Scott Tobias of Variety called it "a thoughtful interrogation of modern womanhood, leavened by gallows humor." Pamela Hutchinson of Sight & Sound wrote: "While the script's cleverness and wordplay betray its stage origins, it's bracingly sharp, and explicitly a feminist text."
In December 2018, the Toronto International Film Festival named the film to its annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list.