A GHOST STORY

(director/writer: David Lowery; cinematographer: Andrew Droz Palermo; editor: David Lowery; music: Daniel Hart, John Congleton; cast: Casey Affleck (C), Rooney Mara (M), Will Oldham (Prognosticator), Kenneisha Thompson (Doctor), Liz Cardenas Franke (Linda), Sonia Acevedo (Maria), Barlow Jacobs (Gentleman Caller), Carlos Bermudez (Carlos), Yasmina Gutierrez(Yasmina); Runtime: 92; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Toby Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Adam Donaghey; Ideaman Studios/A24; 2017-Australia)

“It’s the kind of strange, unique and arty film with a slow camera that reminds one of the great filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul.“

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Writer-director David Lowery (“Ain’t Them Bodies Saints”/”Pete’s Dragon”) presents this experimental mysterious poetical film as a mesmerizing ghost story that brilliantly explores sadness and life through its simple story’s minimalistperformances. The stars, Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, play characters identified as only C and M, respectively. C is a musician sharing a house with M in Texas, who is killed in an auto collision. The dead man rises at a morgue table to become a ghost garbed in a sheet with cut-out holes for eyes. In their house, M can’t see him or feel his touch while grieving or binging on a cherry pie. When a gentleman visitor embraces her, the jealous ghost knocks the books off the shelf. When M moves to another place he remains in their house and observes the new occupants, a Mexican family, and later the house is resold to be razed for an office building when the ghost scares away the family. The mood film shifts time periods, as it moves to the future skyscraper age and back to the days of the settlers in the 19th century, and does so with a surprisingly chilling affect that holds you riveted to a story with no action or special effects. It’s the kind of strange, unique and arty film with a slow camera that reminds one of the great filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul, as it challenges its audience to reflect on loss. It’s a very different kind of romantic fantasy from one that has been tried a few times before by mainstream Hollywood films but without the same lyricism.

REVIEWED ON 3/12/2018 GRADE: A-   https://dennisschwartzreviews.com/

Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”

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