Life and love after death.
A film about loss; a film about moving on; not only for the living, but for the dead as well.
A Ghost Story is an enigmatic and lyrical tale about a deceased man who turns his back on the afterlife, and binds his spirit to the world of the living instead, through eternity and back again. With his life unexpectedly cut short by a fatal car crash, and substantial feelings left unexpressed to his wife, his mournful shade desperately clings to her, endlessly roaming their new home and the grounds it was built upon - but unlike a poltergeist, the only thing he truly haunts is himself.
Writer/director
David Lowery kept dialogue to a minimum in this existential fantasy-drama, instead using poetic imagery, mood, and atmosphere to communicate the film. Our main connection to the characters comes almost entirely from their visible emotions, rather than words, as we constantly scan their faces for subtle shifts in expression. This emphasis placed on the characters’ emotions, combined with Lowery’s aesthetic, gives the mood of the film so much weight it begins to feel palpable.
Lowery’s brilliant artistic choice to present the film in a nearly square 4:3 aspect ratio makes it feel as if you’re viewing the film through a window between worlds - the images projected upon an endless nothingness - and with the patient, somnambulistic camerawork,
A Ghost Story seems to slip through the threads of space and time, drifting in its own cosmic plane of existence, much like our forgotten protagonist.
It’s one of those movies where I left the theater in a drunken haze, and it took me days to process the emotions I felt.
A Ghost Story is one of the decade’s most sublime surprises, and an absolutely masterful piece of transcendental cinema.
Also shout out to the dusky and ambient indie band,
Dark Rooms, and their fantastic song “
I Get Overwhelmed,” which features prominently in the film.
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