Carrie Coon Enters Lily James' Cult in 'The Liberation' Trailer

Carrie Coon plays a woman who leaves her family for an all-female commune in "The Liberation," and Bleecker Street will release the film in US theaters on Friday, January 8. Guy Nattiv directs, and Lily James co-stars as the spiritual leader who draws Coon's character in.

The drama has already screened at Telluride and Toronto this fall, and those festival appearances have put Coon, IndieWire reports, "into the heart of the Best Actress race." Distributor Bleecker Street has now released the official trailer ahead of the winter theatrical run.

What is the film about?

The official synopsis lays out the premise. Coon plays Rita, "a woman in midlife haunted by the weight of her past." She encounters a "magnetic young spiritual leader" named Ricki, played by Lily James, and leaves her family to follow her to an all-female commune. The plot tightens when Rita's daughters — Ella, played by Bella Ramsey, and Jo, played by Odessa Young — arrive unexpectedly and are themselves pulled into the group's orbit. Rita must then choose, the synopsis says, "between the family she left behind and the life she believes can save her."

What did critics single out?

IndieWire's Kate Erbland reviewed the film at the Toronto International Film Festival and made Coon's performance the centerpiece of her assessment. The review homes in on how the film handles the pull of belonging before the group reveals itself as a cult.

"Rita has long felt like she was standing on the outside of her life, and the brief flashes we see of the joy the group (before it so clearly becomes a cult) elicits in her, the feeling she is part of something, is profound," Erbland writes. That early warmth, she argues, is what makes Rita's later state devastating — a "slack-jawed, blank-staring" figure insisting to her children that things are fine, that she is happier than ever.

Erbland also notes the film's sharper argument: "The Liberation" gently undercuts the idea that Rita's "outside" life was better. "Perhaps there is no place for Rita in this world, a horrific revelation that Coon's performance drives home with significant power," the review concludes.

What does this change for awards watchers?

For anyone tracking the Best Actress race, the January 8 date matters. A winter theatrical release after Telluride and Toronto premieres gives Coon a concrete campaign platform, and the role — grief, manipulation, a midlife unravelling — is the kind of meaty material that critics' groups reward. Coon also discussed the performance and her wider career on IndieWire's Screen Talk podcast for listeners who want more before release.

With a cast that pairs Coon against Lily James, Bella Ramsey and Odessa Young, "The Liberation" now has a fixed date and festival credentials behind it — the question for January is whether the performance converts that festival heat into awards votes.