The Young Wife

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The Young Wife

2023

Directed by Tayarisha Poe

I do… or do I?

On her wedding day, all that stands between a young woman and marital bliss with her soon-to-be husband is surviving the chaos and expectations of family and friends, each intensifying her spiraling panic.

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joe
Review by joe ★★★★ Liked

tayarisha poe has some artist vision. such a unique futuristic & stylish film. kiersey clemons & the rest of the cast is soo great. my favorite thing about this has to be the stunning costume designs. 

but oh to smoke a gold joint with judith light

xan
Review by xan ★★★★½ Liked 3

Watched at SXSW 03.12.23

this was the first film i did graphics and animation for and it came out pretty well :) you should watch it

sandyhonig
Review by sandyhonig ★★★★★

feelin so lucky to be part of something so beautiful fr

ryan_t
Review by ryan_t ★★★★ Liked

Tayarisha Poe’s The Young Wife cuts through cinema’s static with stunning precision. This isn’t filmmaking that announces itself with flourishes but a work that trusts its vision enough to let meaning accumulate in the spaces between words, in the tremor of a handheld frame, in the controlled chaos of family gatherings that feel more like staged interventions.

The film operates as both intimate portrait and cultural autopsy, dissecting how identity fractures under the weight of expectation. Through Celestina’s pre-wedding vertigo, Poe excavates something more unsettling than cold feet: the terror of becoming someone else’s appendage, of trading selfhood for social validation. The feminist framework here is visceral, born from the recognition that marriage, despite its romantic mythology, remains one of the…

hustlerss
Review by hustlerss ★★★½ Liked

not quite love at first watch like it was for selah and the spades, but still sooo many interesting things on the board to appreciate. tayarisha poe is a visionary. kiersey clemons is captivating in the lead role, the supporting cast is excellent as well (Aida Osman is a major standout, Judith Light and Sheryl Lee Ralph are always welcome in my household) and the script in the second half starts to realllllllly explore interesting concepts and themes. this could marinate and grow with me upon revisit. holding space for kelly marie tran’s british accent. holding even more space for Lovie Simone’s cameo as Meditation Mary

Marya E. Gates
Review by Marya E. Gates ★★★★½

Set in the not-too-distant but definitely slightly dystopian future that dips its toes in Afrofuturism, the film stars Kiersey Clemons as a young woman named Celestina on the day of her wedding. As she awaits the return of her groom River (Leon Bridges), she is inundated by her family, in-laws, friends, and even a very nosy co-worker, all clamoring for her attention. Poe and Fray capture this visceral disorientation with fluid camera movement and edits that feel like bee stings.

Clemons has always been a wonderfully emotive performer, and here she captures all of Celestina’s anxiety and anticipation as if she were always smiling, despite walking on knives. There is constant media on in the background throughout the film, often…

Katie Carter
Review by Katie Carter ★★★★ Liked

SXSW 2023

Enamored with Tayarisha Poe’s THE YOUNG WIFE and the way she portrays young women grappling with uncertainty amidst chaos. Incredible psychedelic/retro production and costume design, crackling script, and a cast who’s all in on this world’s heightened reality. What vision.

Maya Cade
Review by Maya Cade ★★★★ 2

poetry comes to us in many forms. sometimes an artist's poetry is in immersing you into a world unseen, unexplored, underestimated. as poet, tayarisha, kiersey, and the costume designers respectively, take us through the journey to the unknown with ease.

it's a true *shame* that this wasn't given a wide release.

sandyhonig
Review by sandyhonig ★★★★★

I play an annoying girl who talks really fast, I had to study for 30 years to get into character 

I love this movie I think it’s really special I want you to see it !!! plzzz rent or buy on digital !!!! I personally bought it on vudu which is now fandango at home 🤘

Amy Nicholson
Review by Amy Nicholson ★★★★

Fashion, weather, and life pressures cranked up 35% like an absurdist play. Sliiiightly futuristic and very overwhelming. I'm going to be a Tayarisha Poe completist.

Andy Crump
Review by Andy Crump ★★★½

“Lacks" Selah and the Spades’ propulsion, says you; "swaps" that quality for choking, dreamy inertia, says I. The film "moves," but nearly everything in it stays still, except for Kiersey Clemons, a bundle of exposed nerves in a crop knit pullover. She’s all agitated energy, looking for a light at the end of the world and finding nothing but domineering family and oblivious hangers on who want what they want when they want it, superstorms and toxic water supply be damned. 

Poe really is her own filmmaker with her own style and language and interests. The Young Wife is a thinker; I need to stew on it. But it’s good, and I’m shocked how many people slept on it out of SXSW.

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