''Saint Judy'' is an American

biographical A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just the basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or c ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has b ...

film directed by

Sean Hanish Sean Hanish is an American film writer, producer and director best known for ''Saint Judy'', ''Return to Zero'' and ''Sister Cities''. Feature films ''Return to Zero'' (2014) ''Return to Zero'' focuses on a successful couple who discover j ...

about Judy Wood, an immigration attorney who changed the law on granting asylum in the United States to save the lives of women. It stars

Michelle Monaghan Michelle Lynn Monaghan ( ; born March 23, 1976) is an American actress, best known for her starring roles in ''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' (2005), '' Gone Baby Gone'' (2007), '' Made of Honor'' (2008), '' Eagle Eye'' (2008), '' Trucker'' (2008), ''Sou ...

and

Alfred Molina Alfred Molina (born Alfredo Molina; 24 May 1953) is a British-American actor known for his work on the stage and screen. He first rose to prominence in the West End, earning a nomination for the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Newcomer in a Pla ...

. Molina serves as an executive producer of the film. The screenplay was written by a former intern of Wood. It premiered at the 2018

LA Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, epis ...

. It was released on March 1, 2019, by Blue Fox Entertainment.

Plot

''Saint Judy'' tells the story of Los Angeles immigration attorney Judy Wood, who single-handedly changed United States asylum law to include women to be a part of the protected class. Wood's victory is believed by immigration advocates to have saved the lives of tens of thousands of female immigrants around the world. The film starts from her move with her son from New Mexico to Los Angeles so her son can be closer to his dad, her work in an immigration law office, then in her own law office and in particular the case of an Asefa Ashwari, a teacher from Afghanistan facing deportation to her win in the

9th Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in the following federal judicial districts: * District ...

. It depicts her dedication to her clients over her family.

Cast

as Judy Wood * Judith L. Wood as Herself (Cameo before credits) * Leem Lubany as Asefa * Common as Benjamin Adebayo *

Fahim Fazli Fahim Fazli (; born May 30, 1966) is an Afghan American film actor. Biography Fazli was born in Kabul, Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landl ...

as Taliban Leader *

Peter Krause Peter William Krause (; born August 12, 1965) is an American actor, director, and producer. He has played lead roles in multiple television series, portraying Casey McCall on '' Sports Night'' (1998–2000), Nate Fisher on '' Six Feet Under'' ( ...

as Matthew * Ben Schnetzer as Parker *

Waleed Zuaiter Waleed F. Zuaiter (; born January 16, 1971) is an Arab-American actor and producer who has performed in on-stage productions in Washington, D.C.; Berkeley, California; and New York City, as well as several film and television productions. He live ...

as Omar *

Mykelti Williamson Mykelti Williamson (born March 4, 1957) is an American actor best known for his roles in the films ''Forrest Gump'', ''Con Air'' and '' Ali'', and the television shows ''Boomtown'', '' 24'', and '' Justified''. In 2016, he portrayed Gabriel Maxs ...

as Dikembe Mustafa * Gabriel Bateman as Alex Wood *

Aimee Garcia Aimee Sandimés Garcia López de Ordóñez (born November 28, 1978) is an American actress and writer. She is known for her television roles as Veronica Palmero on the ABC sitcom ''George Lopez'', Yvonne Sanchez on the CBS period drama ''Veg ...

as Celi * Kevin Chapman as Officer King *

Gil Birmingham Gil Birmingham (born July 13, 1953) is an American actor known for his role as Tribal Chairman Thomas Rainwater in the Paramount Network's television series ''Yellowstone''. He is also known for his portrayal of Billy Black in '' The Twilight Sag ...

as Michael Bowman *

as Ray Hernandez *

Alfre Woodard Alfre Woodard (; born November 8, 1952) is an American actress. She has received various accolades, including four Primetime Emmy Awards (tying the record for the most acting Emmys won by an African-American performer, along with Regina King ...

as Judge Benton

Production

Principal photography began in May 2017 in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

Response

Box office

''Saint Judy'' grossed $78,935 in the United States and Canada and $17,277 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $96,212.

Critical reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Festivals and awards

''Saint Judy'' is nominated for an LA Muse award at the Los Angeles Film Festival 2018, Best International Film at London Raindance Film Festival 2018, and a Mind the Gap award at Mill Valley Film Festival 2018. Michelle Monaghan is nominated for Best Performance at London Raindance Film Festival 2018.

References

External links

* * * {{AllMovie title Films shot in Los Angeles Films shot in California Films set in 2003 2018 films American biographical drama films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films