Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi The credits in Drive My Car take place over 40 minutes into the three hour movie, following a prologue about a man and his wife, until she dies suddenly, quietly. So suddenly, in fact, that it's like she simply vanished. Her absence looms large over the remainder of the film, particularly … Continue reading Drive My Car (2021)
grief
Every Thing Will Be Fine (2015)
Directed by Wim Wenders Every Thing Will Be Fine is a melodrama that keeps you at arm's distance. Told over the course of a decade it tells the struggle of a man, woman and child after a fatal accident. He, Tomas (James Franco) was the driver of a car that hit one of two young … Continue reading Every Thing Will Be Fine (2015)
The Farewell (2019)
Directed by Lulu Wang In The Farewell a family gathers in China to say goodbye to the family matriarch, recently diagnosed with lung cancer. Nai Nai (Shuzhen Zhao) doesn't know she is dying, and the family would like to keep it that way, the thought being that it's not the cancer that kills you so much … Continue reading The Farewell (2019)
Midsommar (2019)
Directed by Ari Aster The most horrifying moment in Midsommar might be in the prologue. It at least has the most dread in the film, a sequence that like most horror films is dark, moody and tense. The rest of the film takes place in the often bright, sometimes purposefully overexposed and all around pleasant … Continue reading Midsommar (2019)
Don’t Look Now (1973)
Directed by Nicholas Roeg Don't Look Now finds its two main characters in a labyrinth of grief, somewhere in the dark, foggy, isolated alleys of Venice, Italy. They are a married couple, John and Laura Baxter (Donald Sutherland, Julie Christie), from England who have come to Venice for John's work, as he restores an old … Continue reading Don’t Look Now (1973)
Thunder Road (2018)
Directed by Jim Cummings Thunder Road is adapted from Jim Cummings' short film of the same name. This movie, in fact, begins with a recreation of that original short film, a long take of a uniformed police officer's grief and desperation at his mother's funeral (dancing to Bruce Springsteen music). This man is Officer Jim … Continue reading Thunder Road (2018)
Ballast (2008)
Directed by Lance Hammer “Filmmakers are from a privileged class and tend to make films about themselves. That’s decadent and in my opinion worthless.” - Lance Hammer Ballast concerns three people tied together by one man's suicide. They live in the Mississippi Delta, but the environment feels much more out of this world than that. Hammer … Continue reading Ballast (2008)
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