“We build our legacy piece by piece and maybe the whole world will remember you or maybe just a couple of people, but you do what you can to make sure you’re still around after you’re gone”
Release Date: July 14th, 2017
Genre: Drama, Fantasy Romance
MPAA: PG
Available On Netflix as of January 22nd, 2017
I’ve been on an a24 kick lately, they’re easily these days my favourite indie distributor company. Anything they touch I will watch, just as a couple of examples they were the distributor of Enemy (2014), Ex Machina (2015), Moonlight (2016), Green Room (2016), The Florida Project (2017) {Which i just watched and plan to get a review out}, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017). I think everything they touch is gold.
I missed this movie unfortunately when it was playing in the city, we had a small theatre (It just closed last year) that was the only theatre in the city showing it, until it went to the other theatre downtown. Going downtown for a movie for me, and finding parking is a pain in the ass. I waited until the home video released, but I could only find the DVD, where I really wanted the Blu-Ray, so I waited until it became cheaper on amazon. Lucky for me, it ended up on Netflix. I will be buying the blu ray down the line, even though its on Netflix, its just that good.
A Ghost Story is a Drama, Fantasy and Romance film that follows a recently deceased, white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his wife. What follows is an exploration of legacy, love, loss and the enormity of existence.
A Ghost Story is directed and written by David Lowery. I have not seen any of his other films, but I feel like A Ghost Story is a brilliant start for me to dig a little deeper into his filmography. He has a very interesting style of directing, I felt for the characters at every turn of the movie. He makes it feel like you’ve discovered someones box of home movies, and you’re just an innocent bystander watching someones memories. The framing of this movie threw me off for a bit, it looks like an old projector, the aspect ratio isn’t full screen or wide screen, but its like perfectly framed with a black boarder, its super interesting and I haven’t seen anything like that before.
A Ghost Story pretty much stars two actors. Casey Affleck plays C and Rooney Mara plays M. You don’t learn either characters name in the movie, I had to go to IMDb to get their “names”.
Casey Affleck’s filmography consists of Good Will Hunting (1997), Chasing Amy (1997), American Pie (1999), Ocean’s Eleven (2001), American Pie 2 (2001), Ocean’s Twelve (2004), Ocean’s Thirteen (2007), Gone Baby Gone (2007), ParaNorman (2012), Out Of The Furnace (2013), Interstellar (2014), Manchester By The Sea (2016), and Triple 9 (2016). Casey Affleck used to be one of my favourite actors, I couldn’t get enough of his films. He was incredible in Manchester by the Sea (2016), so much so that he was given the Academy Award for Best Actor in A Leading Role at last years Oscars. I thought he was excellent in this movie, even more interesting that this film is really about the visual story telling, and even more so that I felt bad for him even though he wore a sheet over his face for 2 hours; yet I still felt bad for him. I think thats impressive.
Rooney Mara’s filmography consists of A Nightmare On Elm Street (2010), The Social Network (2010), The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011), Her (2013), Kubo And The Two Strings (2016), and Lion (2016). Rooney Mara is very underrated in my opinion, everything I’ve seen her in I’ve really enjoyed and she really captivates the screen. Theres a scene in this movie where she literally eats a pie in one sitting, its super bizarre the first time you see it, and it goes on for a good 5-7 minutes. But you feel every emotion she has, she starts sniffling and wiping her face. I didn’t think this scene was necessary the first time I watched it, but I ended up watching it again a week later (not only did I love it more and pick up a lot more), but this scene really grew on me.
This movie destroyed me more so the second time, I was left heartbroken, sad, content, inspired, and it made me look at life a bit differently. I think the quote I used above, to really fulfill what this movie is and what life is about.
This movie won’t be for everyone, its a slow burn, its a film where you really have to be awake and be watching for each different scene. Theres not a lot of talking, theres not a lot of story, but there is a lot of emotion.
The soundtrack too is beautiful, I’ve been listening to the song “I Get Overwhelmed” by Dark Rooms at least once a week, and every time I listen to this song, I want to watch A Ghost Story again.
Like I said earlier, this movie won’t be for everyone, but if you want to get lost in a movie and be contently heartbroken, look no further than A Ghost Story. If you can get through it, I think you’d be pleasantly surprised and It could possibly change your life a bit.
A Ghost Story gets a 4.5/5 from me. If I could go back and redo my list of my favourite films of 2017, This would’ve definitely made the top 5, no question.
This is one of the most difficult reviews I’ve written so far, but I hope you all enjoyed it.
Check it out on Netflix, let me know if you watch it then we can chat about it!
Until Next Time!
-Andrew