the help movie review new york times

Movie Reviews

Tv/streaming, collections, great movies, chaz's journal, contributors, the help keep right on helping.

Now streaming on:

"The Help" is a safe film about a volatile subject. Presenting itself as the story of how African-American maids in the South viewed their employers during Jim Crow days, it is equally the story of how they empowered a young white woman to write a best-seller about them, and how that book transformed the author's mother. We are happy for the two white women, and a third, but as the film ends it is still Jackson, Mississippi and Ross Barnett is still governor.

Still, this is a good film, involving and wonderfully acted. I was drawn into the characters and quite moved, even though all the while I was aware it was a feel-good fable, a story that deals with pain but doesn't care to be that painful. We don't always go to the movies for searing truth, but more often for reassurance: Yes, racism is vile and cruel, but hey, not all white people are bad.

The story, based on Kathryn Stockett's best-seller, focuses on Skeeter Phelan ( Emma Stone ), a recent college graduate who comes home and finds she doesn't fit in so easily. Stone has top billing, but her character seems a familiar type, and the movie is stolen, one scene at a time, by two other characters: Aibileen Clark ( Viola Davis ) and Minny Jackson ( Octavia Spencer ).

Both are maids. Aibileen has spent her life as a nanny, raising little white girls. She is very good at it, and genuinely gives them her love, although when they grow up they have an inexorable tendency to turn into their mothers. Minny is a maid who is fired by a local social leader, then hired by a white-trash blonde. Davis and Spencer have such luminous qualities that this becomes their stories, perhaps not entirely by design.

The society lady, Hilly Holbrook ( Bryce Dallas Howard ), is a relentless social climber who fires Minny after long years of service. The blonde is Celia Foote ( Jessica Chastain , from " The Tree of Life "), who is married to a well-off businessman, is desperate to please him, and knows never learned anything about being a housewife.

Minny needs a job, and is happy to work for her. Celia wants her only during the days, when her husband is away, so that he'll think he's eating her cooking and enjoying her housekeeping. Minny helps her with these tasks and many more, some heart-breaking, and fills her with realistic advice. Chastain is unaffected and infectious in her performance.

Celia doesn't listen to Minny's counsel, however, when she attends a big local charity event (for, yes, Hungry African Children), and the event provides the movie's comic centerpiece. Celia's comeuppance doesn't have much to do with the main story, but it gets a lot of big laughs. Some details about a pie seem to belong in a different kind of movie.

Skeeter convinces Aibileen and then Minny to speak frankly with her, sharing their stories, and as the book develops so does her insight and anger. A somber subplot involves the mystery of why Skeeter's beloved nanny, who worked for the family for 29 years, disappeared while Skeeter was away at school. Her mother ( Alison Janney ) harbors the secret of the nanny's disappearance, and after revealing it she undergoes a change of heart in a big late scene of redemption.

Two observations, for what they're worth. All the white people in the movie smoke. None of the black people do. There are several white men with important speaking roles, but only two black men, including a preacher, who have much to say.

There was a 1991 movie named " The Long Walk Home " that starred Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek as a maid and her employer at the time of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. It had sharper edges than "The Help." But I suppose the Stockett novel has many loyal readers, and that this is the movie they imagined while reading it. It's very entertaining. Viola Davis is a force of nature and Octavia Spencer has a wonderfully expressive face and flawless comic timing. Praise, too for Emma Stone, Bryce Dallas Howard and Alison Janney. They would have benefitted from a more fearless screenplay.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

Now playing

Tomris Laffly

God Save Texas

Matt zoller seitz.

How to Have Sex

Peyton robinson.

Brian Tallerico

Christy Lemire

Film Credits

The Help (2011)

Rated PG-13

146 minutes

Ahna O'Reilly as Elizabeth Leefolt

Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote

Mike Vogel as Johnny Foote

Chris Lowell as Stuart Whitworth

Anna Camp as Jolene French

Sissy Spacek as Missus Walters

Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark

Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson

Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly Holbrook

Cicely Tyson as Constantine Jefferson

Emma Stone as Skeeter Phelan

Mary Steenburgen as Elaine Stein

Allison Janney as Charlotte Phelan

Written and directed by

• Tate Taylor

Based on the novel by

• Kathryn Stockett

Latest blog posts

SXSW 2024: Dickweed, Secret Mall Apartment, She Looks Like Me

War Was Not Over at the 2024 Oscars

Oscars 2024: The View from the Room

SXSW 2024: Roleplay, Gasoline Rainbow, Grand Theft Hamlet

Movie review: ‘The Help’

• Show more sharing options
• Copy Link URL Copied!

“The Help” is a delicious peppery stew of home-cooked, 1960s Southern-style racism that serves up a soulful dish of what ails us and what heals us. Laughter, which is ladled on thick as gravy, proves to be the secret ingredient — turning what should be a feel-bad movie about those troubled times into a heart-warming surprise.

The movie is richly flavored by the work of a sprawling cast that puts the exceptional Viola Davis and Emma Stone at the film’s impassioned center, with the scene-stealing tang of Octavia Spencer and the sweet-tart of Jessica Chastain thankfully never far away.

Since we generally prefer not to be reminded of the darker chapters of our history, it’s a risky business taking us back — even with a fictional tale — to Jackson, Miss., at a time when African Americans were still very much the serving class. As much a part of white family life as weekly bridge clubs and church on Sunday, black maids were often loved, more often exploited and nearly always taken for granted. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Medgar Evers were out there stirring things up in that season of fear, but in Jackson kitchens, things were being kept at a simmer.

Against that backdrop, “The Help” takes us inside an unlikely rebellion. It all begins when new Ole Miss grad Skeeter (Stone) comes back home and tries to persuade the women who cook and clean and raise the babies to tell their stories and secrets. She has a publishing career on her mind; they have uncomfortable truths, and redemption on theirs. For both sides it becomes a test of courage and conviction told in a kind of Capra-esque style, and I mean that in the best possible way.

Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling novel has given writer-director Tate Taylor a lot to chew on. Born and raised in Jackson, they are longtime friends and you can feel that connection in the care with which Taylor approaches the material, though the reverence is exactly what eventually trips him up. As a result, the movie exists within an emotionally charged landscape sometimes too starkly black and white — there is no room for ambiguity at this table.

With Taylor’s deep Southern roots, he insisted on shooting the film on location, ultimately finding the retro feel he was looking for in Greenwood, Miss. Cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, whose keen sense of the South earned him an Oscar nomination for 1991’s “The Prince of Tides,” makes the most of it, giving even the dirt roads and decaying frame houses a kind of gauzy beauty usually reserved for the plantation-styled manses. Production designer Mark Ricker (“Julie & Julia”) matches him in kind — this is a man who knows his way around kitchens, an asset since it is in kitchens that much of the movie takes place.

While a lot of the action happens over stoves, it’s the toilets that become the moral proving ground — and deliver some of the movie’s funniest moments. That “The Help” can take the incendiary issue of “separate-but-equal” bathrooms and spin it into a series of side-splitting gags without losing sight of the underlying pain of discrimination, represents a kind of comedy I thought Hollywood had forgotten how to do. You know, the kind that makes us laugh while going right to the heart of the matter, and comes as a blessed relief from the vapid raunch that has become the norm.

Skeeter’s new job at the local newspaper, a rejection letter from a New York publisher and the unexplained absence of Constantine, the maid who raised her, get things underway. From the outset, she is at odds with the world she comes back to — childhood friends now grown and married are busy replicating their mothers’ lifestyle of polished silver, properly behaved children and dinner on the table by six.

Seeing that same world but with a more wounded and far wiser eye is Aibileen (Davis), whom Skeeter enlists to help her with the cleaning advice column she’s writing for the paper. Ambition and insight are a dangerous mix and soon Skeeter wants to make a book out of the maids’ real life stories — the outrages, the secrets, the deep bonds and deeper hurts they share with the families they often spend a lifetime working for. But in ‘60s Jackson, speech is not free, and talking carries the possibility of losing much more than a job, which is precious enough.

Skeeter has always been a pea without a pod, which makes it a perfect fit for Stone’s distinctive brand of authenticity. This is an actress who willingly lets her jaw drop and eyes roll, but in the most natural of ways. The world-weary Aibileen is the perfect counterpoint to the newly minted skeptic. Davis carries the weight of history in every move, she makes you feel the ache in Aibileen’s aging knees as she bends to comfort a crying child, and there is a sadness that lingers in her eyes even when they are crinkled by laughter.

The biggest surprise is Spencer, a savory bit of truth-telling sass as Minny. She’s more than a match for her nemesis, Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard), a separate-but-equal harpy, who would have benefited from a bit more shading. These two are on a collision course that Spencer keeps comically churned up almost from start to finish.

When Spencer takes a breather, Chastain, the ethereal beauty in “The Tree of Life,” is there as a blond bombshell with a less-than-pristine past but with a sweetness so winning you understand why she walked away with Jackson’s most eligible man.

Allison Janney — making motherhood into a nice career with fine performances in “American Beauty” and “Juno” under her belt — is another linchpin in the story. As Skeeter’s mother, she’s forever wishing that her daughter would just make an effort to fit in. It can seem a simple thing as she tries to work Skeeter’s unruly curls into bouffant perfection — but conformity and all the pressure it brings become yet another thorny issue underpinning the narrative almost as much as racism.

At some point, everyone is forced to make a choice — to stay or break with the status quo. For the maids of Jackson, whether or not to participate in the book becomes the test. By the time it lands, it has become the kind of political hot potato that is searing and scathing in ways that will leave you laughing and crying.

“The Help” is only Taylor’s second feature film and a big leap from the small scale of his pointed “Pretty Ugly People,” which poked fun at our obsession with being thin. His strength, as it was in his debut, is in fully mining the comic talents of his actors to help the drama go down; he’s less sure-footed in handling the big themes. In being true to the book and the complex interlocking stories and characters Stockett created, Taylor runs into the same difficulty — too many happy endings that come too fast and fail to foreshadow the difficulties that lie ahead.

Still, you won’t want to miss this quintessential Southern portrait of the long, hot summer of their discontent.

[email protected]

More to Read

Commentary: ‘American Fiction’s’ Oscar shows not all movies by Black directors need to be about violence and poverty

March 11, 2024

84 years after Hattie McDaniel, the Oscars still put Black women in a box

March 8, 2024

Granderson: Your U.S. history class needed a film like ‘Rustin’

Feb. 24, 2024

The biggest entertainment stories

Get our big stories about Hollywood, film, television, music, arts, culture and more right in your inbox as soon as they publish.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.

Former Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey is an award-winning entertainment journalist and bestselling author. She left the newsroom in 2015. In addition to her critical essays and reviews of about 200 films a year for The Times, Sharkey’s weekly movie reviews appeared in newspapers nationally and internationally. Her books include collaborations with Oscar-winning actresses Faye Dunaway on “Looking for Gatsby” and Marlee Matlin on “I’ll Scream Later.” Sharkey holds a degree in journalism and a master’s in communications theory from Texas Christian University.

More From the Los Angeles Times

Entertainment & Arts

Neve Campbell will return for ‘Scream 7’; salary dispute is apparently history

March 12, 2024

Sydney Sweeney is in a new horror film. She wants to remind us how dorky she is

Boss, Def Jam’s first female rapper and ‘Born Gangstaz’ musician, dies at 54

Sharon Stone identifies producer who allegedly pressured her to sleep with her ‘Sliver’ co-star

• People Really Do Get Their Civil Rights History From Movies Like <i>The Help</i>. The Problem With That Is Clear

People Really Do Get Their Civil Rights History From Movies Like The Help . The Problem With That Is Clear

A s the death of George Floyd and the protests that have followed trigger a new level of awareness of systemic racism , many non-Black people are now engaging in the crucial work of educating themselves about the history behind this moment. Many of the most popular books on the topic quickly sold out , and several platforms made it free to watch movies and TV shows about civil rights. It was in this environment that, last week, the 2011 movie The Help became the most watched film on Netflix.

Set in 1963 and 1964 in Jackson, Miss., The Help was written and directed by a white man based on a novel by a white woman and creates a fantasy version of race relations during the long era of segregation. Highly comedic scenes minimize occasional glimpses into the genuine cruelty inflicted on Black people. Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer)—the titular “Help,” and part of cinema’s long history of “Mammy” characters—make audiences laugh and forget about harmful stereotypes. Davis has said in the past that she regrets making the movie, and this week her co-star Bryce Dallas Howard encouraged viewers to instead watch “films and shows that center Black lives, stories, creators and/or performers.”

The need to amplify Black voices and actual Black experiences has never been clearer, and there are other reasons why it matters that The Help is being watched at this moment: From 2009 to 2016, while researching the ways the civil rights movement is depicted on film, I compiled, read and analyzed several thousand user reviews on Amazon, and my research shows that people who watch historical movies tend to accept what is presented as the definitive historical truth. Moreover, such was true for The Help more than any other civil rights film.

Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter

In thousands of comments ranging from a few sentences to several paragraphs, people repeatedly describe The Help in similar ways: “This movie shows a true depiction of life during the times of segregation”; “Another classic piece of work. How completely taken back to the fifties and sixties I felt”; “Wonderful and tragic story. I am amazed that I lived in these times and had no idea of what was happening in the South”; and “I’m a 59-year-old white man, and this movie made me cry my eyes out…It surprises me to hear that the book is a work of fiction. These stories seem so real.”

It speaks volumes to the ways in which The Help moves people that so many have left comments attesting to its accuracy—and warrants even more attention to the movie’s problems.

Only a tiny number of reviews express skepticism. One such review says that The Help gives a “pretty tame version of the truth.”

Of the entire film, Davis has since conceded , “It wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard,” yet people believe that the entire movie is about the experiences of actual maids. The Help centers around Skeeter (Emma Stone), a white woman, and her quest as the first person to tell the world what Black women working as maids really went through. In reality, there are many records of what that life was like—and Black men and women had been sharing their experiences, without white people begging them to do, since enslavement. The actual experiences they shared—ones of harassment, dire poverty, rape, surveillance—are nowhere to be found in The Help .

While the movie takes a feel-good stand against racism, it doesn’t include any actual activism or change for Black rights. Worse, The Help ’s portrayal of Mississippi in the early 1960s stands in the starkest of contrasts to testimonies by Martin Luther King Jr. , by Anne Moody and by Nina Simone —people with firsthand experience who maintained that the state was the most racist of places. This matters in a time when more people claim to seek and promote Black voices. And still worse, The Help creates a simplified world where merely saying sorry is enough to be absolved of racism.

Among some viewers, the desire to believe that The Help is true—that race relations aren’t that bad—is clear. Going back to Amazon reviews, one says, “Good thing it wasn’t too serious,” while another says, “I’m sure this film expresses some truth, but there just might be some exaggeration here. We never treated anyone the way this film assumes that all whites treated blacks in those days.” In contrast, further showing how difficult it can be for some to think about history and race, one person writes, “My entire family is from the South. I get aggravated at movies that demonize my family and ancestry. The film is good, but it’s at the expense of my family.”

People who get their civil rights history from The Help —even people who recognize the tragic deaths of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade and Breonna Taylor—could easily embrace the popular notion that there was once a time with fewer racial tensions in the United States. This belief encourages people to look for someone to blame for things getting worse, instead of acknowledging that racism has been deeply embedded in the United States since its creation. Others might see the story as proof that racism is less urgent a crisis than it is.

The stories that we tell, even when they’re just stories, matter. This is nothing new. Ralph Ellison, known best for his novel Invisible Man , saw this truth 70 years ago. “Obviously these films are not about Negroes at all; they are about what whites think and feel about Negroes,” he wrote . “And if they are taken as an accurate reflection of that thinking, it becomes apparent that there is much confusion.”

In today’s world, watching The Help for mere entertainment is impossible. Its messages leave harmful, if intangible, imprints. Of course, Hollywood does often play an important role in making the past approachable; times are often somewhat fictionalized, and drama is added. But plenty of movies convey powerful historical truths without sanitizing the past. In a society attempting to face the hard facts about itself, deviations from the spirit of truth have consequences.

Historians’ perspectives on how the past informs the present

Andrew Joseph Pegoda teaches women’s, gender and sexuality studies; religious studies; and English at the University of Houston. He tweets at @AJP_PhD .

More Must-Reads From TIME

• The Fight to Free Evan Gershkovich
• Meet the 2024 Women of the Year
• John Kerry's Next Move
• What the Oscars Say About Film's Future
• The Quiet Work Trees Do for the Planet
• Breaker Sunny Choi Is Heading to Paris
• Column: The Internet Made Romantic Betrayal Even More Devastating
• Want Weekly Recs on What to Watch, Read, and More? Sign Up for Worth Your Time

Contact us at [email protected]

You May Also Like

A stirring black-empowerment tale that personalizes the civil rights movement through the testimony of domestic servants working in Jackson, Miss., circa 1963.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

• ‘The Fall Guy’ Review: Ryan Gosling Is a Lover and a (Stunt) Fighter in Surprisingly Romantic Reboot of ’80s Action Show 3 hours ago
• ‘2024 Oscar Nominated Short Films: Documentary’ Review: This Year’s Indelible Subjects Range From Farting Grannies to Musical Kids 3 days ago
• ‘Babes’ Review: Pamela Adlon Delivers an Unapologetically Raw Take on Pregnancy and Female Friendship 3 days ago

A stirring black-empowerment tale aimed squarely at white auds, “ The Help ” personalizes the civil rights movement through the testimony of domestic servants working in Jackson, Miss., circa 1963. But more than that, it serves as an enlightening and deeply affecting exercise in empathy for those who’ve never considered what life must have been like for African-Americans living with inequality a full century after the Emancipation Proclamation called an end to slavery. With its Southern sass and feel-good sensitivity — and broad awareness as a New York Times bestseller — “The Help” should clean up domestically, though it may not translate well overseas.

Based on Kathryn Stockett ‘s unlikely chart-topper, in which a white girl who fancies herself a writer convinces more than a dozen Mississippi maids to publish their stories, the adaptation is a multiethnic ensembler with likely greater appeal among genteel white ladies than the black community it somewhat patronizingly seeks to understand.

The eminently likable Emma Stone plays the young journalist, a misfit debutante-turned-college grad named Skeeter Phelan, though the true hero is Viola Davis ‘ Aibileen, the African-American maid who puts her life and career on the line; in the Jim Crow South, talking out of turn could get Aibileen lynched.

The pair make compelling leads in a film packed with strong female characters. Getting to know this colorful and diverse group of ladies is chief among “The Help’s” many pleasures, as the film emphasizes hankie-tugging sisterhood over pricklier issues that continue to divide the races today. Standouts include Hilly Holbrook ( Bryce Dallas Howard ) and Celia Foote (Jessica Chastain), two white ladies from opposite ends of the social spectrum. Even though the actresses playing them look uncannily similar, they create radically different portraits of Southern eccentricity.

As president of the local Junior League, Hilly is the classy Marilyn to Celia’s trailer-trash Norma Jean; both women also happen to share a maid, the cantankerous and equally unforgettable Minny Jackson (Octavia Spencer), who isn’t afraid to burn bridges in order to preserve her self-respect.

Everyone who’s anyone in Jackson — from Skeeter’s imperious mother (Allison Janney, perfectly cast) to Aibileen’s boss, Elizabeth Leefolt (Ahna O’Reilly, a master of the insincere Southern smile-scowl) — allows Hilly to bully them around. Top of her agenda is passing a bill that would require employers to build separate outdoor bathrooms for the help. Thanks to Minny, she’ll get her just desserts, courtesy of a twist that rivals that of kindred spirit “ Fried Green Tomatoes .”

In the novel, Skeeter’s anonymously published expose is simply called “Help” — a clever play on words that suggests a cry for change from segregated second-class citizens desperate for their voices to be heard. The film, adapted with the sure hand of a seasoned pro by Stockett’s longtime friend Tate Taylor (a relatively unproven director with only one previous feature to his name, 2008’s “Pretty Ugly People”), hews relatively close to its source material, running a tad on the long side in order to squeeze in most of the personality-rich book’s characters and subplots.

Still, many of these elements are paid little more than passing recognition and might have been better omitted altogether, if only to leave more room for the maids.

Though the film makes Hilly’s Home Help Sanitation Initiative (like her use of the N-word) unreasonable enough that no one would hesitate to denounce it today, the issue cuts to the heart of Stockett’s strong central theme: In their own minds, many Southern whites viewed their servants as members of the family, and yet they seldom extended them the same courtesies they would have shown to even the most unwanted relative. To underscore the point, Stockett includes Hilly’s mother, Missus Walters (Sissy Spacek), whose Alzheimer’s hasn’t advanced enough to erase the memory of her daughter’s most embarrassing secret.

In 1960s Mississippi, the only thing the white society ladies value more than discretion is gossip, and Skeeter’s book threatens to expose all their dirty laundry. Even more entertaining than the dirt is the dramatic story behind the book’s creation, intercut with such actual events as the assassination of Medgar Evers, which positions the publication of the fictitious tome as one of those inspiring small steps/giant leaps in which white readers come to recognize their fellow man.

The film itself shares that perspective, frequently privileging the maids’ point of view, to the extent that Taylor opens and closes the film with Aibileen’s testimony to Skeeter’s question: “What’s it feel like raising a white child when your own child is at home being raised by someone else?”

Like Stockett, Taylor grew up in Jackson and demonstrates a keen, wryly observant sense for the dialect and mannerisms of his hometown. Despite his limited directing experience, the helmer has firm control of the material, working with production designer Mark Ricker (“Julie & Julia”) and costume designer Sharen Davis (“Dreamgirls”) to create a robust, fully saturated snapshot of the city, from Hilly’s impeccable beehive hairdo to Aibileen’s understated-yet-proud living room.

“The Help” probably didn’t need the anemic romantic thread between Skeeter and Stuart Whitworth (Chris Lowell), though its inclusion — over the book’s explanation for what really happened to Constantine (Cicely Tyson), the Phelan family maid who lost her job after her daughter was born pale enough to pass for white — suggests where the film’s priorities lie. It’s a shame, too, that the pic leaves out the particulars of what happens to Aibileen, though the final scene — in concert with Thomas Newman ‘s score throughout — is irrefutably optimistic about where things are headed.

• Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures release of a DreamWorks Pictures/Reliance Entertainment presentation in association with Participant Media and Imagenation Abu Dhabi of a 1492 Pictures/Harbinger Pictures production. Produced by Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan. Executive producers, Mark Radcliffe, Tate Taylor, L. Dean Jones Jr., Nate Berkus, Jennifer Blum, John Norris, Jeff Skoll, Mohamed Mubarak Al Mazrouei. Co-producer, Sonya Lunsford. Directed, written by Tate Taylor, based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett.
• Crew: Camera (Deluxe color), Stephen Goldblatt; editor, Hughes Winborne; music, Thomas Newman; production designer, Mark Ricker; art director, Curt Beech; set decorator, Rena Deangelo; costume designer, Sharen Davis; sound (Dolby Digital/Datasat/SDDS), Willie Burton; supervising sound editor, Dennis Drummond; visual effects supervisor, Ray McIntyre, Jr.; visual effects, Pixel Magic; re-recording mixers, Scott Millan, David Giammarco; casting, Kerry Barden, Paul Schnee. Reviewed at Clarity screening room, Beverly Hills, July 20, 2011. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 146 MIN.
• With: Skeeter Phelan - Emma Stone Aibileen Clark - Viola Davis Hilly Holbrook - Bryce Dallas Howard Minny Jackson - Octavia Spencer Celia Foote - Jessica Chastain Elizabeth Leefolt - Ahna O'Reilly Charlotte Phelan - Allison Janney Jolene French - Anna Camp Mae Mobley - Eleanor Henry, Emma Henry Stuart Whitworth - Chris Lowell Constantine Jefferson - Cicely Tyson Johnny Foote - Mike Vogel Missus Walters - Sissy Spacek Elaine Stein - Mary Steenburgen

More From Our Brands

Rnc’s new election integrity specialist literally wrote a book pushing the big lie, in costa rica, a $3.25 million hideaway balances modern design with its jungle setting, new york liberty name fox 5 official tv partner, the best mattress protectors, according to sleep experts, the oval season 5 finale ends in gunfire — who didn’t survive, verify it's you, please log in.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

Heavy-Handed 'Help' Saved By Great Acting

David Edelstein

Bryce Dallas Howard (from left), Sissy Spacek and Octavia Spencer star in The Help, based on a novel by Kathryn Stockett. Dale Robinette/Dreamworks Pictures hide caption

• Director: Tate Taylor
• Genre: Drama
• Running Time: 137 minutes

Rated PG-13 for thematic material

With: Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer, Jessica Chastain

Watch Clips

'Skeeter Needs Help'

Credit: Dreamworks Pictures

'Minny Works For Celia'

'Shinolator'

Few fictional films wear their political messages as proudly or loudly as The Help, which centers on black female domestic servants in Jackson, Miss., in the early 1960s and a 23-year-old white woman who induces them to tell their stories for a book to be called, appropriately enough, The Help .

Emma Stone plays the perky white woman, Eugenia Phelan, nicknamed Skeeter, who returns from college to find her wealthy family's maid — who essentially raised her — gone under mysterious circumstances and her friends married with kids and black maids of their own. After Skeeter talks her way into a newspaper job writing a column on housekeeping — a subject about which she knows nothing — she reaches out for advice to her friend Elizabeth's maid, Aibileen, played by Viola Davis. But as racial tensions intensify and her snooty friends reveal their true segregationist selves, Skeeter prevails on Aibileen to give her more than household cleaning tips.

"There's something else I want to write about and I would need your help," says Skeeter. "I want to interview you about what it's like to work as a maid. I'd like to do a book of interviews about working for white families and we could show what it's like to work for Elizabeth."

"You know what she would do to me if she knew I was telling stories on her?" asks Aibileen.

"Well, I was thinking we wouldn't have to tell her," says Skeeter. "The other maids would have to keep it a secret too."

"Other maids?" asks Aibileen.

"I was hoping to get four or five to show what it's really like in Jackson," says Skeeter.

Getting those other maids turns out to be a problem, until the insults become even harder to bear. The imperious Hilly Holbrook, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, announces it's unhygienic to let black people use the house toilets and directs her friends to build outhouses. Then Hilly dumps her aging mother's maid, Minny, played by Octavia Spencer, for being what's often called "sassy." Although Medgar Evers has just been murdered and the KKK is on the prowl, Minny finally agrees to talk to Skeeter, too. But not before she lays down the law.

"I'm going to do it but I need to make sure you understand this ain't no game," says Minny. "I need to see you square on at all times."

Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), an aspiring writer, listens to advice from her editor in New York as she embarks on a secret writing project that puts her, and especially the women she is working with, at great risk. Dale Robinette/Dreamworks Pictures hide caption

Skeeter Phelan (Emma Stone), an aspiring writer, listens to advice from her editor in New York as she embarks on a secret writing project that puts her, and especially the women she is working with, at great risk.

The Help is based on a novel by Kathryn Stockett both beloved for opening white eyes to the vantage of maltreated servants and attacked, in some quarters, as a white author's appropriation of black women's experience. Some of Stockett's critics have gone so far as to say she actually romanticizes domestic servitude by depicting black nannies' genuine love for the white children in their care. They also say the novel is full of stock characters that reinforce classic African-American stereotypes like the "sassy" maid and the shiftless, abusive husband.

My view of this controversy is easily stated: I don't know I don't know I don't know. I concede the novel and movie are heavy-handed. But I also think they're full of good, evocative details — closely observed depictions of the coping mechanisms of both servants and employers. The white Southern belle's passive aggression, condescension, and sheer misuse of power come through vividly.

Director Tate Taylor has a dull, square style with too many close-ups — but the faces we get close to are great ones. Stone is amazingly vivid, at once blurty and brainy, and villainess Howard lifts her nose and slits her eyes with aplomb. Jessica Chastain plays a handsome rich guy's hot, uneducated wife who hires Minny on the sly to teach her how to clean and cook. The character has been simplified — in the novel she's scarily unstable — but Chastain makes her helplessness hilarious. Allison Janney triumphs over countless banalities as Skeeter's oblivious mother, and Sissy Spacek has some funny scenes as Hilly's mom, derisive toward her daughter even in her dottiness.

Spencer's Minny is indeed a stereotype, but she charges into the frame and gives her scenes a lift. The center of The Help is Davis, who has eyes unlike other actress's. They're hard, unyielding, with no giveback, softening only for the neglected little girl in her care. It's a tough, beautifully judged performance. The weak, weepy, uplifting ending is odd given Mississippi's imminent eruption, but there will be wet hankies everywhere. The Help is the highest form of middlebrow.

Notice: All forms on this website are temporarily down for maintenance. You will not be able to complete a form to request information or a resource. We apologize for any inconvenience and will reactivate the forms as soon as possible.

• DVD & Streaming
• Comedy , Drama

Content Caution

In Theaters

• August 10, 2011
• Emma Stone as Eugenia 'Skeeter' Phelan; Viola Davis as Aibileen Clark; Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson; Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly Holbrook; Jessica Chastain as Celia Foote; Ahna O'Reilly as Elizabeth Leefolt; Allison Janney as Charlotte Phelan; Sissy Spacek as Missus Walters; Emma and Eleanor Henry as Mae Mobley Leefolt; Chris Lowell as Stuart Whitworth; Cicely Tyson as Constantine Jefferson; Ted Welch as William Holbrook; Mary Steenburgen as Elain Stein

Home Release Date

• December 6, 2011
• Tate Taylor

Distributor

Movie review.

Sometimes what you plan to do and what actually happens are two very different things. Take the case of Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan. When the recent college grad returns to her hometown of Jackson, Miss., in the early 1960s, she’s not looking to challenge the status quo or stir up trouble.

But she does anyway.

It begins when she gets a job at the local paper penning the weekly cleaning advice column. Skeeter doesn’t know much about cleaning, so she asks her socialite friend Elizabeth Leefolt if she can talk with her black maid, Aibileen Clark, about the subject.

Questions about getting stains out soon lead to deeper inquiries: “Do you ever dream of being something else?” Skeeter asks Aibileen. “What does it feel like to raise a white child?”

They’re questions born of Skeeter’s precocious nature and her penchant for treating Aibileen as an equal, not simply as “the help.” And the answers are so compelling Skeeter sends them to an editor in New York whom she hopes to work for someday. The editor promptly tells her, “Get more stories.”

Skeeter’s enthusiasm to share the secret stories of the maids, however, is about as far removed from the attitudes of her peers as it can be. Elizabeth starts to get nervous that Skeeter is talking to Aibileen—really talking to her—too much. And then there’s Hilly Holbrook, a self-righteous defender of Jackson’s racially divided status quo, to contend with.

So it’s no surprise that Aibileen isn’t sure she wants to share much more of her story—let alone recruit other maids to tell theirs. Especially against the idea is Hilly’s feisty, backtalking maid, Minny, who, ironically, doesn’t need any help from Skeeter when it comes to stirring up trouble.

But as racial tensions mount (including the murder of a civil rights leader), Aibileen, Minny and scores of other maids decide the time has come to let Skeeter write their stories. And when Skeeter’s book The Help is published anonymously, well, let’s just say that Hilly Holbrook is none too happy about it.

Positive Elements

The Help is an emotionally compelling film that lifts the veil on a group of industrious, longsuffering maids persevering through years of service to white employers who frequently treat them as subhuman. Hilly’s cruelty, for example, is evident in the way she demands that separate outhouses be built for the maids—they need to “take their business outside,” she opines—even helping to sponsor a bill that would make such treatment required. That’s not positive, of course. But it is just one of the many ways the film reveals the plight of a people who are separate but definitely not equal.

Despite such prejudice, Aibileen exercises remarkable tenderness in the way she raises Elizabeth’s daughter, Mae Mobley. In addition to tending to all the household’s domestic duties—cooking, cleaning, buying groceries—Aibileen is devoted to the toddler, telling her, “You is kind. You is smart. You is important. You’re so good.” Those messages stand in stark contrast to the ones handed to Aibileen from her white employer.

Skeeter, meanwhile, represents the possibility of a new way, a new day in which blacks might be treated as respected equals. Skeeter risks her reputation to capture these women’s stories—and hearts—in her writing, and she’s determined to see the task through.

A subplot gives us an additional glimpse into Skeeter’s motivation. When she returns from college, she learns that the aging maid who had faithfully served her own family for decades, a woman named Constantine, was no longer there. Skeeter questions her mother, Charlotte, regarding her absence, but Mom refuses to tell her what happened. In the end, the painful truth is revealed, and we see that Charlotte harbors many of the same racist attitudes of those around her. Unlike many of those folks, however, Charlotte sees the error of her ways, regrets her cowardice and stands up for Skeeter’s convictions. “Courage sometimes skips a generation,” she tells her daughter. “Thank you for bringing it back to our family.”

In a flashback, Skeeter remembers a lesson Constantine taught her when she was bullied and labeled ugly. The older woman tells her that ugly isn’t something on the outside, but “something that grows up inside of you.” She tells Skeeter that she has a decision to make: “Am I going to believe all them bad things them fools say about me today?” And regarding her future, Constantine tells her, “As for you, you’re going to do something big.”

Another subplot involves a woman named Celia Foote, who hires Minny as her maid after she’s fired by Hilly. Celia treats Minny kindly, even as an equal. And Minny is initially wary, but eventually a friendship grows between the two. Minny reciprocates Celia’s kindness by helping her when Celia has a miscarriage.

Spiritual Elements

The maids’ perseverance is shown to be directly related to their Christian faith. Aibileen talks about how she keeps prayer journals and says that she writes out her prayers for an hour or two each night. Near the end of the movie, she says, “God says we need to love our enemies. It hard to do. But it can start by telling the truth.”

And tell the truth she does, eventually confronting Hilly, saying, “You scheme and lie. You’re a godless woman, Miss Hilly.” Still, there’s talk about the need to forgive. And Minny says she’s confessed and asked for forgiveness for a particularly nasty prank that she plays on Hilly. “I done ask God to forgive me,” she says.

At a church service, the reverend delivers a sermon from Exodus, emphasizing the importance of doing right despite the weakness of the flesh. He also talks about Jesus’ love for us and says that we, likewise, must be willing to put ourselves in harm’s way for others—for our brothers, our sisters, our families and even for our enemies.

Regarding the death of her son in an accident at work (after which he was brusquely dropped off in front of a hospital), Aibileen tells Skeeter, “It took God and Minny to get through it.” Several times we see a picture of Jesus hanging next to Aibileen’s photo of her deceased son.

A conversation about perseverance includes the repeated phrase, “If God is willing.” We hear frequent—and reverent—exclamations of “oh Lord” and “Lord have mercy.”

Not all references to Christianity are flattering, though. Especially since Hilly claims to be one. When her new maid (after Minny is fired) asks for a $75 loan so that she and her husband won’t have to choose which of their two boys go to college, Hilly refuses. Then she adds, “As a Christian, I’m doing you a favor. God don’t give charity” to those who can earn something themselves.

Sexual Content

Celia, a dead ringer for Marilyn Monroe, frequently wears outfits that reveal quite a lot of her breasts. Home for a lunch break from work one day, her husband kisses her aggressively and grabs her backside, suggestively talking about how “hungry” he is.

Skeeter’s mother is concerned about her daughter’s laissez-faire attitude toward men and marriage, and wonders if she might be a lesbian. That word is never used, but her mom does talk about a certain root that’s supposedly able to cure women of their unnatural desires.

Skeeter and her boyfriend, Stuart, kiss a couple of times. She and her mother are shown in slips as they try on a dress.

Violent Content

We hear a violent argument between Minny and her husband, who’s obviously throwing things. Later, Minny has a black eye. Celia tells her, “Give it right back to him and tell him to go straight to hell.”

A maid who’s stolen a ring and pawned it is forcefully arrested. When she resists, we see a police officer’s baton come up to strike her before the camera shifts to the winces of her friends. A television newscast reports the shooting of a civil rights leader by a KKK sniper. We also hear of a car being set on fire for racial reasons.

Celia suffers a miscarriage in her bathroom, and we see the floor, her clothes and her hands covered with blood. Afterward, she buries her baby in her yard and plants a rosebush.

Crude or Profane Language

Six or seven s-words. Two obvious misuses of Jesus’ name and nearly 10 of God’s name. Four times God’s name is paired with “d‑‑n,” a word that is uttered other times as well. Whites spit out “n-gger” a handful of times. Other profanities include “a‑‑,” a‑‑hole” and “h‑‑‑.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Virtually everyone, Skeeter included, smokes. And in a self-conscious wink at people’s attitudes toward smoking during that era, Skeeter’s boss says, “I guarantee you one day they’re going to figure out that cigarettes kill you.”

Social drinking is almost as frequent as the smoking. Many scenes picture (white) people downing mixed drinks or martinis. A would-be-suitor for Skeeter is obviously drunk, and he keeps ordering shots. Celia is likewise inebriated at a socialite event.

Other Negative Elements

Hilly concocts a story about Minny stealing something to justify firing her. Later, Hilly’s new maid finds a ring behind a couch and does steal it.

After Minny’s fired, she returns with a pie that Hilly interprets as a peace offering. As she’s eating her second piece and talking about how wonderful it is, she asks what secret ingredient Minny uses to make it taste so good. Minny informs her that the “secret ingredient” is in fact her excrement, twice saying, “Eat my s‑‑‑.” After learning of Hilly’s pie experience, several people (including her mother) meanly make fun of her.

Skeeter plays an unkind joke of her own on Hilly, writing that anyone who wants to donate an old commode can drop it in her yard (an offer quite a few people accept). And speaking of commodes, we see a child and a couple of women using them. (They’re all fully covered.)

Skeeter’s mother makes a disparaging comment about her daughter’s “Mexican man shoes.” Stuart leaves Skeeter after he finds out she’s the author of The Help .

Since it was published in 2009, Kathryn Stockett’s best-selling novel The Help has become a sensation—both in terms of the rapturous praise heaped upon it and the criticism coming from some who question whether a white woman could do justice to the stories of black maids.

But Alice Walker, who wrote The Color Purple , certainly doesn’t fall into that latter camp. Entertainment Weekly reported that she feared the story would just be picking at old scabs. But when she finally read it, she was moved by its “healing response to a lifetime (really lifet imes ) of injustice and hurt.” Likewise, Myrlie Evers-Williams, widow of slain activist Medgar Evers, said at a recent NAACP screening of the film, “They captured the times.” She also added, “If we look seriously at what is happening in America today, there is a need for that knowledge, there is a need for that connection. There’s a need for seeing the spirit and determination of those people.”

The Help is indeed a story of spirit and determination, illuminating the profound dignity of a group of intelligent and hardworking but severely marginalized black women. Likewise, Skeeter Phelan’s determination to treat these “lowly” maids as real human beings, as people of worth instead of just hired help, is equally inspiring. Especially for those who’ve grown up after the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, The Help offers an eye-opening look at the injustices that many if not most blacks in the South had to endure daily.

It also shows some of the right ways (as contrasted by some wrong ones) to deal with that kind of day-to-day struggle.

The only fly in the shoofly pie is that there’s just enough profanity, including s-words and harsh misuses of God’s name, to put off viewers who might otherwise be interested in engaging with this kind of powerful, inspiring story.

Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

Latest Reviews

Forty-Seven Days With Jesus

Kung Fu Panda 4

Weekly Reviews Straight to your Inbox!

Log in or sign up for Rotten Tomatoes

Trouble logging in?

By continuing, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and to receive email from the Fandango Media Brands .

By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies , and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes.

Email not verified

Let's keep in touch.

Sign up for the Rotten Tomatoes newsletter to get weekly updates on:

• Upcoming Movies and TV shows
• Trivia & Rotten Tomatoes Podcast
• Media News + More

By clicking "Sign Me Up," you are agreeing to receive occasional emails and communications from Fandango Media (Fandango, Vudu, and Rotten Tomatoes) and consenting to Fandango's Privacy Policy and Terms and Policies . Please allow 10 business days for your account to reflect your preferences.

OK, got it!

Movies / TV

No results found.

• What's the Tomatometer®?
• Login/signup

Movies in theaters

• Opening this week
• Top box office
• Coming soon to theaters
• Certified fresh movies

Movies at home

• Netflix streaming
• Prime Video
• Most popular streaming movies
• What to Watch New

Certified fresh picks

• Dune: Part Two Link to Dune: Part Two
• Love Lies Bleeding Link to Love Lies Bleeding
• Orion and the Dark Link to Orion and the Dark

New TV Tonight

• Invincible: Season 2
• The Academy Awards: Season 96
• Manhunt: Season 1
• The Girls on the Bus: Season 1
• Boat Story: Season 1
• Young Royals: Season 3
• Apples Never Fall: Season 1
• Girls5eva: Season 3
• Chicken Nugget: Season 1
• The McBee Dynasty: Real American Cowboys: Season 1

Most Popular TV on RT

• The Gentlemen: Season 1
• Shōgun: Season 1
• Avatar: The Last Airbender: Season 1
• The Signal: Season 1
• 3 Body Problem: Season 1
• The Tourist: Season 2
• The Regime: Season 1
• House of Ninjas: Season 1
• One Day: Season 1
• Masters of the Air: Season 1
• Best TV Shows
• Most Popular TV
• TV & Streaming News

Certified fresh pick

• Elsbeth: Season 1 Link to Elsbeth: Season 1
• All-Time Lists
• Binge Guide
• Comics on TV
• Five Favorite Films
• Video Interviews
• Weekend Box Office
• Weekly Ketchup
• What to Watch

All Blumhouse Horror Movies Ranked

The 100 Best Movies Over 3 Hours Long, Ranked

Women’s History

Awards Tour

TV Premiere Dates 2024

Weekend Box Office Results: Kung Fu Panda 4 Dethrones Dune

• Trending on RT
• Play Movie Trivia
• Dune: Part 2
• Poor Things

The Help Reviews

As a piece of entertainment, it works. As a historical document, its contents are too sanitized in an effort to avoid inflaming old tensions and that mutes its impact.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 10, 2023

While the narrative includes Black characters’ perspectives, the writing holds them at a distance, not providing more in-depth character development overall.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 6, 2023

This is a film that will expose you to horrible truths about a not-too-distant past and, in the end, makes you laugh and feel like there’s a happy ending, except there isn’t one. Not really.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Mar 9, 2023

The Help, a likely Best Picture nominee, has one of the best ensembles of the year.

Full Review | Feb 11, 2022

"The Help" will make you laugh, cry, and contemplate how far we've come as a society, how much has radically changed since the 1960s and, given our current racial climate, reflect on how much more progress we need.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 26, 2022

This movie is slick and mainstream; it's also funny and sweet, dramatic and pointed.

Full Review | Mar 24, 2021

An uplifting, feel-good movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 30, 2020

The Help works beautifully as an entertaining film about a troubling period in American history and the people who were impacted by it.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 10, 2020

Abruptly ending and slightly overlong it may be, the performances from the three female leads and the authenticity of the setting covers the cracks in an otherwise charming film.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 11, 2019

As perfect as a sipping a cold glass of sweet tea on a sweltering summer afternoon, TheHelp quenches your thirst for a perfect movie experience.

Full Review | Nov 26, 2019

It's beautiful to both look at and watch.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2019

A fun, satisfying and often quite moving summer movie for grown-ups.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 8, 2019

Wants to have a say about some serious subjects while at the same time appealing to the masses. To its credit, The Help succeeds more on the latter than it does the former, leaving a somewhat effective drama that could have been much more.

Full Review | May 7, 2019

Yes it has drawn some criticism for not being authentic enough in depicting the painful disparity, but in putting rarely heard voices on screen and telling it in a story as regonisable as this, The Help deserves only praise.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 29, 2019

The Help succeeds is because even though there are triumphs, they're not easy-and the spectacularly strong cast takes it to the level it needs to be at so it's believable and not cheesy.

Full Review | Mar 5, 2019

There's a luscious attention to paid to period detail, with brightly colored frocks and subdued homes. Yet the film itself is rather black and white, keeping it from being an unalloyed artistic success.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 8, 2019

The film has its moments of twee sentimentalism, but also resonates with a clear sense of poignancy, and is told in an accessible and hugely pleasurable way.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 29, 2018

The Help is a somewhat light-hearted take on the relations between black maids and their bosses in 1960s Mississippi, giving a simplified yet well-intended story of Kathryn Stockett’s novel for the big screen.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 24, 2018

"The Help" still serves as an uplifting reminder of how compassion, courage, empathy and honesty have helped change the world.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 8, 2018

It resonates with our desire to see wrongs set right at a time when so many white Americans were shamefully working against liberty and justice.

Full Review | Jun 25, 2018

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Metacritic reviews

• 88 Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore Davis and Spencer give faces and fully-fleshed out lives to women who must have been more than what they did for a living as The Help.
• 88 Rolling Stone Peter Travers Rolling Stone Peter Travers A deeply touching human story filled with humor and heartbreak is rare in any movie season, especially summer. That's what makes The Help an exhilarating gift.
• 80 Variety Variety A stirring black-empowerment tale aimed squarely at white audiences, The Help personalizes the civil rights movement through the testimony of domestic servants working in Jackson, Miss., circa 1963.
• 75 Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips Davis is reason No. 1 the film extracted from Kathryn Stockett's 2009 best-seller improves on its source material.
• 70 The New Yorker David Denby The New Yorker David Denby The Help is, in some way, crude and obvious, but it opens up a broad new swath of experience on the screen, and parts of it are so moving and well acted that any objections to what's second-rate seem to matter less as the movie goes on. [15 & 22 August 2011, p. 96]
• 70 Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz The acting is uniformly excellent, and the cause - dragging the beginnings of civil rights into Jackson, Miss., at great risk - couldn't be nobler. What the film lacks is a strong point of view.
• 63 Boston Globe Wesley Morris Boston Globe Wesley Morris The movie is too pious for farce and too eager to please to comment persuasively on the racial horrors of the Deep South at that time.
• 60 The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt Taylor does capture the Jim Crow era and its anxieties well, but his characters tend toward the facile and his white heroine is too idealized.
• 40 Boxoffice Magazine Sara Maria Vizcarrondo Boxoffice Magazine Sara Maria Vizcarrondo A chick flick for do-gooders, The Help suffers from a malady common to the discrimination drama: its treatment of inequality is more condescending than the prejudice it aims to remedy.
• 25 Slant Magazine Andrew Schenker Slant Magazine Andrew Schenker High school creative-writing-class ironies of all kinds abound in The Help.
• See all 41 reviews on Metacritic.com
• See all external reviews for The Help

More from this title

More to explore.

Recently viewed

• For Parents
• For Educators
• Our Work and Impact

Or browse by category:

• Movie Reviews
• Best Movie Lists
• Best Movies on Netflix, Disney+, and More

Common Sense Selections for Movies

50 Modern Movies All Kids Should Watch Before They're 12

• Best TV Lists
• Best TV Shows on Netflix, Disney+, and More
• Common Sense Selections for TV
• Video Reviews of TV Shows

Best Kids' Shows on Disney+

Best Kids' TV Shows on Netflix

• Book Reviews
• Best Book Lists
• Common Sense Selections for Books

8 Tips for Getting Kids Hooked on Books

50 Books All Kids Should Read Before They're 12

• Game Reviews
• Best Game Lists

Common Sense Selections for Games

• Video Reviews of Games

Nintendo Switch Games for Family Fun

• Podcast Reviews
• Best Podcast Lists

Common Sense Selections for Podcasts

Parents' Guide to Podcasts

• App Reviews
• Best App Lists

Social Networking for Teens

Gun-Free Action Game Apps

Reviews for AI Apps and Tools

• YouTube Channel Reviews
• YouTube Kids Channels by Topic

Parents' Ultimate Guide to YouTube Kids

YouTube Kids Channels for Gamers

• Preschoolers (2-4)
• Little Kids (5-7)
• Big Kids (8-9)
• Pre-Teens (10-12)
• Teens (13+)
• Screen Time
• Social Media
• Online Safety
• Identity and Community

Explaining the News to Our Kids

• Family Tech Planners
• Digital Skills
• All Articles
• Latino Culture
• Black Voices
• Asian Stories
• Native Narratives
• LGBTQ+ Pride
• Best of Diverse Representation List

Celebrating Black History Month

Movies and TV Shows with Arab Leads

Celebrate Hip-Hop's 50th Anniversary

Common sense media reviewers.

Poignant, thought-provoking civil rights tale.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

The movie doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties of be

Skeeter starts her book project because she wants

Minny is domestically abused; it happens off-camer

For the first half of the movie, there's virtually

The word "s--t" is of prominent importance to the

Coca-Cola is shown a couple of times, as is a Pigg

Accurately for the '60s setting, almost everyone i

Parents need to know that The Help is an emotionally intense adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's best-selling civil rights-era novel. It isn't likely to appeal to young kids, but it's a historically relevant drama that mature tweens and teens can see with their parents. The film not only teaches about…

Positive Messages

The movie doesn't sugarcoat the difficulties of being African American in Jim Crow Mississippi, but there are positive messages about how the '60s were a revolutionary time for civil rights, even as so many had to die to achieve it. Through Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny's partnership, the idea that a member of the "elite" class can find common ground with disenfranchised African-American servants is critical to the movie, even if it was improbable in real life.

Positive Role Models

Skeeter starts her book project because she wants to be published, but as she gets to know Aibileen and Minny, she realizes that her book is an important exercise in getting disenfranchised voices heard. Aibileen and Minny bravely, carefully buck the Southern system of Jim Crow to share their stories with Skeeter. Aibileen teaches the little girl in her care to be self-confident and loving. Skeeter suffers the consequences of her actions but realizes it was for the best. Skeeter's mom has a change of heart about the way she treated their family housekeeper. Celia sees Minny as an equal and actually befriends her, and Minny helps save Celia from misery.

Violence & Scariness

Minny is domestically abused; it happens off-camera, but viewers do see her with bruises on her face. The assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers is a key moment in the film; President Kennedy's assassination is also discussed. In a disturbing scene, a character suffers a miscarriage and is shown sitting in a small pool of blood. A police officer is rough with an African-American woman he arrests (and her friends), even hitting her in the head with his night stick. Parents sensitive to physical discipline should know that a parent spanks her child for a minor "mistake." A mother recounts how her son was basically left for dead by his white employers; another woman explains how she was threatened at gun point. The maids seem genuinely fearful of white men, whom they know could kill them without any repercussions.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

For the first half of the movie, there's virtually no sexuality (except for the occasional presence of Celia, who wears form-fitting outfits and has considerable cleavage). In the second half, Skeeter goes on a date that turns into her first serious relationship, although she and her boyfriend only kiss and hold hands. A woman's history of multiple miscarriages is discussed; she and her husband are depicted as playful and flirty. Other married couples embrace and dance at a holiday gala.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

The word "s--t" is of prominent importance to the storyline and is said several times throughout the movie. Other language includes "damn," "hell," "jackass," "a--hole," "goddamn," "oh my God," and the "N" word, which is used once, in a casual, matter-of-fact way: "Some n---er just got shot, now y'all got to get off the bus." Hilly often pronounces the words "negro" and "negra" in a way that sounds like "niggra." Other insults used toward the help include "thievin'," "sass-mouthin'," and "no-good."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Coca-Cola is shown a couple of times, as is a Piggly Wiggly supermarket.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Accurately for the '60s setting, almost everyone in the movie (even a pregnant character) smokes. One character orders drink after drink on a blind date. A woman gets drunk at a party and accidentally rips her social rival's sleeve; she then throws up on her adversary's party gown.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that The Help is an emotionally intense adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's best-selling civil rights-era novel. It isn't likely to appeal to young kids, but it's a historically relevant drama that mature tweens and teens can see with their parents. The film not only teaches about segregation and the importance of racial equality, but it also shows how oppressed people have important stories to tell. The language is tame for a PG-13 movie except for the word "s--t," which is used several times, and one casual use of the "N" word by a bus driver. African Americans are referred to as "negro," and a grown-up restaurant worker is called "boy" by white patrons. There's no graphic violence, but a character is obviously physically abused by her husband, and a woman has a miscarriage, leaving her in a pool of her blood. Reflecting the '60s setting, almost everyone (even a pregnant woman) smokes cigarettes and drinks. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (50)
• Kids say (116)

Based on 50 parent reviews

Great historical movie

If religious profanity bothers you, don't watch -, what's the story.

Skeeter ( Emma Stone ) is one of the few young women in her upper-crust circle to actually graduate from college. She returns home to Jackson, Miss., where all of her friends are married young mothers who let their African-American maids do the heavy lifting while they gather for bridge games, gossip, and charity-ball planning. Unfulfilled with her job as a household-tips columnist, Skeeter pitches a book idea to a New York city editor ( Mary Steenburgen ): She'll write a collection of stories about THE HELP, from their point of view. But first Skeeter must convince her friends' housekeepers -- starting with Aibileen ( Viola Davis ) -- to be interviewed for the project. Hesitant at first, Aibileen eventually relents and nudges her best friend, the recently fired Minny (Octavia Spencer), to tell the truth about raising and loving white children who grow up to be just as racist as their parents.

Is It Any Good?

All of the performances are remarkable in this drama. On the surface, The Help looks like yet another civil rights story told from the perspective of an open-minded white character who acts as the catalyst for change. But director Tate Taylor is careful not to put an overwhelming spotlight on Skeeter at the expense of Aibileen (who narrates the drama) or Minny. Stone continues to solidify her stellar reputation with her understated performance as the ambitious but slightly misfit young writer. But the real revelations are Davis, who's such a nuanced actress that she can elicit a storm of emotions with her soul-piercing stare, and relative newcomer Spencer, who's not only playing the opinionated Minny but is her inspiration (she's a close friend of both the author and director). Both actresses are deserving of an Academy Award nominations.

There's not a flat note in the production, although special mention must be made of scene-stealers Bryce Dallas Howard and Jessica Chastain . Howard plays Hilly Holbrook, one of the meanest, most heartless villains this side of Cruella DeVil. She's the Junior League set's queen bee and is so racist that she wants a bill passed forcing white homes to have a separate bathroom for their black servants. Chastain, who wowed critics in The Tree of Life , lets loose as Minny's kind and charismatic employer, who's desperate for a friend. The Help is one of those perfect movies for parents and mature tweens/teens to see together. It sparks discussion, teaches a history lesson, and makes everyone think about how we treat others. And yes, don't forget the tissues. There will be weeping.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how The Help depicts African Americans' struggle for racial equality. How accurate do you think it is? How could you find out more about this part of history?

Are the characters realistic? Do you consider any of them to be stereotypes ? If so, why?

Some have criticized Stockett's story for making a white character central to the civil rights movement. How is the movie sensitive to this issue? What did you learn about the South under Jim Crow laws?

For those who've read the book, how faithful is the movie adaptation? What changes did you like? What do you wish the director had included?

Movie Details

• In theaters : August 12, 2011
• On DVD or streaming : December 6, 2011
• Cast : Bryce Dallas Howard , Emma Stone , Octavia Spencer , Viola Davis
• Director : Tate Taylor
• Inclusion Information : Gay directors, Female actors, Black actors
• Studio : DreamWorks
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 137 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : thematic material
• Last updated : February 4, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

Our editors recommend.

Forrest Gump

To Kill a Mockingbird

Driving Miss Daisy

Fried Green Tomatoes

Drama movies that tug at the heartstrings, best classic comedy films.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

• International
• New York/Region
• NYT Front Page
• Crossword/Games
• Dining & Wine
• Fashion & Style
• Home & Garden
• Learning Network
• Multimedia/Photos
• Week in Review
• Editorials/Op-Ed
• Readers' Opinions
• The Public Editor

CLASSIFIEDS

• Real Estate
• All Classifieds

'Cabrini' film tells origin of first US citizen saint: What to know about Mother Cabrini

'cabrini' is about francesca cabrini, an italian nun who came to the u.s. to care for poor and homeless immigrants in new york city, in the process becoming an entrepreneur and a canonized saint..

The film "Cabrini," in theaters Friday on International Women's Day , details the story of a woman many don't know by name.

But Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini should be more celebrated.

An Italian immigrant and missionary, she's credited with creating 67 institutions including orphanages, schools and hospitals and becoming the first U.S. citizen to be named a saint by the Catholic Church.

Alejandro Monteverde, who also directed last year's "Sound of Freedom," didn't know much about Cabrini when the opportunity to work on the film arrived, just as the COVID pandemic shutdown happened. "I had no idea about her life," he told USA TODAY.

International Women's Day 2024: What to know about the day and how to #InspireInclusion

As he learned about Cabrini – born in 1850, she immigrated to New York in 1889 – Monteverde "realized she was a warrior."

"This was a woman who came to a country where women had no rights, literally to vote or even to own land ... and was able to build, some say, an empire as big as any Rockefeller or Vanderbilt at a time when women were completely voiceless," Monteverde said. "I saw this story as the ultimate underdog story."

Here's what you should about "Cabrini," the woman and the film.

How to watch 'Cabrini'

"Cabrini" hits more than 3,000 theaters in North America on Friday, March 8. You can find theaters near you on the Angel Studios website .

The film stars Italian actress Cristiana Dell’Anna ("Toscana," "The Hand of God") as Mother Francesca Cabrini, John Lithgow ("Killers of the Flower Moon") as Mayor Gould, and David Morse ("The Last Thing He Told Me") as Archbishop Corrigan.

Who was Francesca Cabrini?

Maria Francesca Cabrini was born prematurely in northern Italy near Milan on July 15, 1850. As a slight of build and sickly child, she nearly drowned, which gave her a lifelong fear of water, the National Catholic Register reported .

Her health problems continued when as a schoolteacher, who also tended to the sick, she contracted smallpox. Her efforts to join a religious order were rebuffed, but in 1874 she took over an orphanage in nearby Codogno.

Six years later, the bishop asked her to start a new order, The Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus . "Its international mission would become her life’s work," reported Humanities, the magazine of the National Endowment for the Humanities in its Spring 2023 issue .

Cabrini, who envisioned an international religious caretaking network of the young and poor, wanted to begin in China. But Pope Leo XIII asked her to go "not to the East, but to the West,” to help Italian immigrants in New York, according to the website of the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine NYC .

What is 'Cabrini' about?

The film "Cabrini" details the challenges she and her fellow sisters faced upon arrival in New York in 1889. But they prevailed establishing an orphanage, schools and a hospital. The Columbus Hospital, opened by the religious order in 1896, would become a vital treatment facility. Eventually renamed the Cabrini Medical Center, it closed in 2008.

"It's a story about a very strong woman, powerful and strong-willed especially, who had such strong beliefs and ideals and vision for a different reality," Dell’Anna, who stars as Cabrini, told USA TODAY.

Cabrini's story should be a message to women to "trust our guts, to trust our instincts," she said. As women, "there's always someone, that's normally a man, who would have a stronger opinion about things and we should trust that instead of us. Cabrini is the proof of the opposite."

Cabrini's travels throughout the U.S. took her to cities including Chicago, Denver and New Orleans; internationally, she traveled to many countries including Argentina, Brazil Costa Rica, Panama, England and Spain.

Despite her fear of water, she crossed the Atlantic Ocean 23 times. She had tickets to sail on the Titanic, but her plans changed and she did not board the fated ship, the NCR reported.

How did Francesca Cabrini become a saint?

Mother Cabrini – who took the name Frances Xavier in 1877 when she took her vows to honor the saint – became a U.S. citizen in Seattle in 1909. At age 67, she died in Chicago on December 22, 1917 of chronic endocarditis. Over the years, hospitals, universities, schools and housing projects such as the Cabrini-Green development in Chicago have borne her name.

In 1946, Pope Pius XII waived the then-traditional 50-year canonization waiting period to make Cabrini – who was credited with several healing miracles – the first U.S. citizen to be named a saint.

“She gathered endangered youth in safe houses, and taught the holy and rightful principles. She consoled the spirit of the imprisoned, giving them the comfort of life eternal,” he said, notes the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus site. “She consoled the sick and the infirm gathered in hospitals, and cared for them assiduously. Especially towards immigrants, who had left their own homes ... did she extend a friendly hand, a sheltering refuge, relief and help.”

Her remains rest at the St. Frances Cabrini Shrine in New York City and her heart is preserved in Codogno, Italy, according to the shrine.

Four years after Cabrini was canonized, she was named Patroness of Immigrants.

The issue of immigration makes this film timely, Monteverde admits.

But Mother Cabrini "was about the immigrant, the human being," he said. "Whether it's an immigrant or a homeless person, which is another thing that is very topical right now, it's very relevant. We're getting used to it and it's not normal. ... That loss of dignity is fortunately (what the movie) is pointing out."

Watch the 'Cabrini' trailer

Follow Mike Snider on X and Threads:  @mikesnider  & mikegsnider .

What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day

What's Hot

Film review: how <i>the help</i> failed us.

Writer/TV News Producer in Washington D.C.

The Help tells the story of a plucky young writer, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, who has decided to write a book about black maids who raise white children in her hometown. We are in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963. Jim Crow. Segregation. Lynching. Medgar Evers assassinated. Still, this movie aspires to make you feel good.

And it failed.

The only positive thing about this movie is that it put several good Black actors on a screen before a wide audience. Maybe this movie will be a vehicle to higher ground for some of them.

The graceful Viola Davis plays Aibileen convincingly but we knew she was magical after we saw her opposite Meryl Streep . The renowned thespian herself urged the Hollywood powers that be to "give her [Davis] a movie" during the 2009 SAG Awards .

There has been much praise for Octavia Spencer's Minnie. Spencer committed to the role but in the end Minnie is an "sass-mouthin'" Mammy who "lah to fry chicken" and makes farcical facial expressions because you know Black folks of that era were all "slow of speech and slow of tongue." Hmm hmm.

Octavia Spencer (Minnie) has said "I think this movie transcends the time period that it's portraying. If this project makes us go into our daily lives and makes us view those who facilitate our lives -- whether it's your personal assistant, your gardener, your cleaning lady, whoever -- if you aren't treating them with a level of respect, then, hopefully, after seeing this movie, you will understand the importance of that."

She is right in that the movie is about a contemporary issue -- abuse of domestic workers. But, that is precisely why this movie failed. This movie's tone makes it clear that it is talking about 1960s Jackson, Mississippi. It is too tight a context to allow us to think of our current maids, gardeners, and nannies. If it did that people would not have cried joyously in the theatre, feeling so good that we have come so far, they would have been ashamed .

If director Tate Taylor wanted to make a film about the plight of domestic workers, he might have made one about a Hispanic or Haitian nanny in Brooklyn.

Women, foreign-born and people of color account for 95 percent of domestic workers, says a 2009 UCLA study . The study also reports that 33 percent of respondents said they had suffered verbal/physical abuse. Another 35 percent declined to answer, which means maybe. According to a study from the states of California and New York there are a total of 2.5 million domestic workers in the United States. Sixty percent of these people say they receive less than minimum wage, which means about 60 percent of employers are willfully violating the Law.

So there is plenty of strife to wrestle with here in our day, if the filmmakers wanted to make a conscious-raising movie.

"Women like me will see "The Help" and think we're like Skeeter because we have some black Facebook friends," Kirby admits. "Combating our privilege is something we have to learn to do, sometimes daily -- and the fact that Skeeter does it in a world where her higher status is assumed as the natural order of things is pure fairy tale ."

The movie uses the same language to convey the real dangers that blacks faced in the segregated South and for trivial spats between the characters, conflating the situations which are incomparable. Manohla Dargis from The New York Times rightly points out that the most poignant sequence in the movie is when, having heard news of Medgar Evers' assassination, the bus driver orders all negros off the bus. (There was concern that Blacks might get violent, riots might erupt). Aibileen (Viola Davis) gets off the bus "and then this sturdy, frightened woman starts running as if her life were in danger, because it's Mississippi, and it is."

Then Minnie tries to explain to her boss Celia, who wants to impress her husband with her non-existent culinary skills, why she could not be her secret maid. Her husband had to know Minnie had been hired for if he found her on his property, he might "shoot me." This line is said in exaggeration and played for laughs. But it is not funny . There are enough stories of white folks shooting black folks for petty reasons made legitimate in the era of Jim Crow .

Later Celia's husband does find Minnie on the property. She runs, he chases her. The audience laughs. This is akin to creating a scene where a Jew is running from someone she thinks might be a Nazi sympathizer but who is in fact just a friendly guy. That scene would not be acceptable. It is never acceptable to make light of the Holocaust. Why is it acceptable to make light of segregation?

There are things that you must have whole or not at all.If the Civil Rights activists had compromised and said we are no longer slaves, that's Freedom enough, where would we be?

Freedom cannot bear compromise. You are either wholly Free or not at all. So they marched and they sang and they endured. The truth is another thing that will not bear fragmentation. If you deal in truth, then you must give the whole truth. Yet, this movie took on segregation as if it were a sidebar. They wanted to show the truth of it but not too much, so as not to make anyone uncomfortable. They mentioned Evers being shot but they did not show the extent of that tragedy or what it really meant to the movement. They treated Minnie's defiance of white people as if it were just bad girl naughtiness. What she did with that pie could have got her killed!

Minnie baked a special pie for her former white employer who fired her because she had used the house bathroom while a hurricane tore through Jackson, killing at least 10 people.

Once the filmmakers had made the shit joke, they kept referencing it over and over again. Cheap laughs.

Are we so over racism that we can now laugh at it? I do not think so. Some of the same problems that separated us then separate us now. People will say "But I have nothing against black people!" I applaud you. Yet the fact remains that " 79 percent or more of black and Hispanic children in public schools cannot read or do math at grade level in the fourth, eighth or 12th grades."

Perhaps we have, in some places, in some stations, in some professions, achieved equality of opportunity . Every black person knows that equality of opportunity is a hard-earned victory against real adversities like unequal access to education and fantastical adversities -- those battles we have to fight against the shadow of ourselves. The shadow at your heel, stalking you, relentlessly asking " Who do you think you are? When has a Black Person ever _____ (Insert here your greatest dream)?"

That question persists in some minds because we have yet to achieve de facto equality, when there is a truly representative political class, a truly representative merchant class, a truly representative prison population . 1

Until then the shit in the pie is just a distraction.

1. Federal Bureau of Prisons : 38 percent of prisoners are Black yet Blacks only make up 13 percent of the population at large.

I raise two virtual pennies for your thought. Did you love, hate, or just avoid this film? Tell us in the comments!

Support HuffPost

Our 2024 coverage needs you, your loyalty means the world to us.

At HuffPost, we believe that everyone needs high-quality journalism, but we understand that not everyone can afford to pay for expensive news subscriptions. That is why we are committed to providing deeply reported, carefully fact-checked news that is freely accessible to everyone.

Whether you come to HuffPost for updates on the 2024 presidential race, hard-hitting investigations into critical issues facing our country today, or trending stories that make you laugh, we appreciate you. The truth is, news costs money to produce, and we are proud that we have never put our stories behind an expensive paywall.

Would you join us to help keep our stories free for all? Your contribution of as little as $2 will go a long way.

As Americans head to the polls in 2024, the very future of our country is at stake. At HuffPost, we believe that a free press is critical to creating well-informed voters. That's why our journalism is free for everyone, even though other newsrooms retreat behind expensive paywalls.

Our journalists will continue to cover the twists and turns during this historic presidential election. With your help, we'll bring you hard-hitting investigations, well-researched analysis and timely takes you can't find elsewhere. Reporting in this current political climate is a responsibility we do not take lightly, and we thank you for your support.

Contribute as little as $2 to keep our news free for all.

Dear HuffPost Reader

Thank you for your past contribution to HuffPost. We are sincerely grateful for readers like you who help us ensure that we can keep our journalism free for everyone.

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. Would you consider becoming a regular HuffPost contributor?

The stakes are high this year, and our 2024 coverage could use continued support. If circumstances have changed since you last contributed, we hope you’ll consider contributing to HuffPost once more.

Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.

Popular in the Community

From our partner, more in entertainment.

• Search Search Please fill out this field.
• Sweepstakes

The Help becomes most-viewed movie on Netflix amid anti-racism protests

The film was criticized by star Viola Davis in 2018, and its renewed popularity in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests has drawn criticism from black activists on social media.

Despite the bounty of films by black artists available to stream (some of which are now available for free ) in this time of crisis, many viewers are turning to The Help — a movie written and directed by a white man, based on a book by a white woman, about a white woman's quest to document the plight of black maids — instead.

As nationwide anti-racism protests continue, demanding justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and other black people killed by police, the 2011 film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel became the most-viewed movie on Netflix in the U.S. on Thursday, according to the streaming service's metrics. The film's resurgence has drawn criticism from many black writers and activists on social media, who are urging viewers to seek out other resources and films to educate themselves on racism.

"I'm so sorry but the last thing folx need to be watching are bootleg 'racial reconciliation' movies like 'The Help' - if you need a list of Black films, Black film critics are on here happy to suggest some really good ones. Hi, happy to help," film and TV critic Rebecca Theodore-Vachon tweeted .

"DO NOT WATCH THE F---IN HELP RIGHT NOW," writer Ashly Perez tweeted . "WATCH 13TH, SELMA, WHEN THEY SEE US. LITERALLY ANYTHING BUT THE HELP."

Criticism of The Help is nothing new, incidentally. In 2011, ahead of the film's release, black novelist Martha Southgate penned an op-ed for EW in which she wrote, "Implicit in The Help and a number of other popular works that deal with the civil rights era is the notion that a white character is somehow crucial or even necessary to tell this particular tale of black liberation."

Even star Viola Davis critiqued the film in retrospect, telling The New York Times in 2018 that she regretted taking part in the project . "It wasn’t the voices of the maids that were heard," Davis said at the time. "I know Aibileen. I know Minny. They’re my grandma. They’re my mom. And I know that if you do a movie where the whole premise is, I want to know what it feels like to work for white people and to bring up children in 1963, I want to hear how you really feel about it. I never heard that in the course of the movie."

Directed by Tate Taylor, The Help earned Octavia Spencer an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and also stars Emma Stone, Jessica Chastain, and Bryce Dallas Howard.

If you're currently looking for relevant viewing, Ava DuVernay 's film Selma , about Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1965 campaign to secure equal voting rights for black Americans, is currently available to stream on all digital platforms for free for the rest of June as is Just Mercy . Streaming service The Criterion Channel has also made films highlighting black lives free to watch , including Daughters of the Dust , the first film directed by an African American woman to be theatrically distributed in the U.S.

To help combat systemic racism, please consider donating to these organizations:

• Campaign Zero , which is dedicated to ending police brutality in America through research-based strategies.
• Color of Change , which works to move decision makers in corporations and government to be more responsive to racial disparities.
• Equal Justice Initiative , which provides legal services to people who have been wrongly convicted, denied a fair trial, or abused in state jails and prisons.

Related content:

• Criterion Channel offers Daughters of the Dust , films highlighting black lives for free
• Warner Bros. makes Just Mercy available for free as education on 'systemic racism'
• 47 black-owned bookstores across the country that you can support