Review: ‘Josephine’ is extremely upsetting—and a cinematic achievement
2026 / Dir. Beth de Araújo / 2026 Sundance Film Festival
Rating: 4.5/5
Watch if you like: Adolescence, Fish Tank, The 400 Blows, and two hours of straight trauma about a little girl learning the world is awful.
Winner of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival’s Audience Award Dramatic and Grand Jury Prize Dramatic, Josephine is an extremely upsetting and horrifying two hours—yet also a cinematic achievement.
Jogging with her father early in the morning for soccer practice, eight-year-old Josephine (Mason Reeves in the best adolescent performance I’ve seen in recent memory) witnesses an extremely graphic sexual assault. In the aftermath she’s subjected to the absurdities of the U.S. justice system and deeply traumatized, while her parents (Gemma Chan and Channing Tatum) struggle to know the right thing to do to make their daughter feel safe.
Director Beth de Araújo (Soft & Quiet) tells this story from Josephine’s perspective, sometimes literally by shifting to a POV or by directly manifesting her fears through the apparition of the rapist, who appears as a ghost in the home. Reeves, whom the director discovered at a farmer’s market near her home, is truly a revelation as Josephine, who goes through an emotional journey that would challenge any experienced actor. Likewise, Tatum is perfectly cast as a tough, jock father slowly breaking down, realizing he can never fully protect his daughter (a final scene with him and Reeves is worth an immediate Oscar nomination). Nothing about Josephine is an easy watch, but neither is life.