Movies that make you feel something: a review of Ghostlight

Last night I watched a remarkable movie called Ghostlight. I was going to include a short review of it along with my monthly "What I watched in..." update, but by the end of the film I knew I had to give it it's own separate review.

Spoiler warning. Do not read this review until you've seen the movie and...please. Please! See the movie.

Ghostlight is about a grieving family navigating the aftermath of a horrible loss. The film mostly focuses on Dan Mueller (Keith Kupferer), the middle-aged father who works a blue collar job in construction and is struggling with how to rein in his rebellious teenage daughter, Daisy (Katherine Mallen Kupferer), and remain connected to his wife Sharon (Tara Mallen). You'll notice that the Mueller family is played by an actual family. Ghostlight is, above all, honest and realistic. Most of the actors are not well known, so there's no star power getting in the way of believing that these characters are real people. 

The loss that the Mueller family is processing is the suicide of son Brian. They are suing the family of Brian's girlfriend, Christine (Lia Cubilete), who they believe encouraged the suicide. The teens decided to kill themselves when Christine's family planned on moving and Brian couldn't move with her. They both took pills. Christine woke up. Brian didn't. 

Dan gets pulled into a role in a community theatre production of Romeo and Juliet, purely because his construction site is outside of the playhouse, and lead actress Rita (Dolly de Leon) notices that Dan seems on edge and angry. She invites him to read for the part of Lord Capulet, explaining that it seems to her that Dan might want to pretend to be someone else for a while. Despite Dan being extremely outside his comfort zone, he keeps coming back and eventually he is cast in the role of Romeo with Rita as Juliet. The two are middle-aged--the wrong ages for the part, but the right ages to match each other.

Now, at this point you might say "Hmmm, a grieving father cast in the role of a teenage boy who makes a suicide pact with his girlfriend, just like the man's own son did? Pretty big coincidence!" Indeed, this is the only aspect of Ghostlight that is a bit silly and unbelievable. But if you can set that aside, or see it as a situation in which life gives you exactly what you need in the moment, it really is a beautiful example of how art imitates life and vice versa, and how art allows us to process and face difficult emotions. 

Through acting and theatre, Dan is able to finally empathize with how his son felt at the moment he took his own life. Dan's rage transforms to understanding, allowing him to really grieve and, importantly, forgive Christine and Christine's family. There is an absolutely heartbreaking moment where Dan runs into Christine at a mini golf park and she tearfully apologizes to him and says "I didn't mean to wake up". GAH.

Ghostlight is one of the most humane, honest, vulnerable, and real movies I've seen in awhile. It reminds me of why I love movies (and books) so much: they help me feel things. You can't connect with your emotions while scrolling through social media, not really. You may feel anger and rage and self-righteousness, but those are shadows of the actual emotions lurking beneath: the hurt, the fear, the vulnerability. That's where longer form art comes in. Movies, TV shows, books...fucking opera, man. You need something more in order to access and process those more complex feelings. And many people either can't or won't go that deep. I've lived a pretty sheltered and lucky life, with some struggles but nothing like the loss of a child. But I want to be able to understand and empathize with someone who has struggled with that. Not because I actually want to experience trauma and loss myself (who does?), but because despite my introversion and misanthropy, I want to connect to other human beings. And just as Dan finds that art allows him a safe space to feel and process, I find that movies like Ghostlight are a safe space to feel and process. 

Don't be afraid to read and watch sad things. By doing so, you become more human.

Grade: A+

Stuff I watched in...May, 2025

I had the chance to watch a ton of stuff in May because I was ill for almost the entire month! Yay? Enjoy the reviews...

Dying for Sex

This 8-episode series on Hulu is based on the life and death of Molly Kochan, who co-hosted a podcast of the same name shortly before she passed from cancer. After receiving a terminal diagnosis, Molly left her husband and began having many, many unique sexual encounters before her death. While the choice to leave one's spouse and go fuck-crazy knowing you'll die in two years probably sounds like a nightmare (and selfish) for many, I can kind of see why someone would do it. If you KNEW you were going to die, what would you stop putting off? Or, more pointedly, when would you start getting off?

Molly is played by the doe-eyed, lovely Michelle Willams. Her best friend and caretaker, Nikki, is played by Jenny Slate. First and foremost, Dying for Sex is about the power of female friendships. Molly leaves her husband, Steve (Jay Duplass), and avoids her mother, Gail (Sissy Spacek), because neither of those people can provide Molly the emotional care she needs.

After confessing to a hospice worker, Sonya (Esco Jouley), that she has never had an orgasm with another person, Molly decides "fuck it, I'm dying, nothing matters" and begins hooking up with strangers. But she specifically goes the BDSM route and begins playing with men who want to be kicked in the balls, treated like a dog, and humiliated. On the eve of her death, Molly is born a Domme. 

Dying for Sex is quite funny, but also deeply poignant and so, so empathetic towards dying people. It shows that even people who are dying have goals and might not be these beautiful, perfect "angels" in the event of their death. Our culture surrounding death is abominable--they way we hide it, medicalize it, and care more about keeping a body alive than caring for the spirit inside the body. I wouldn't be surprised if some viewers found this show repugnant--a woman leaving her caring husband to do weird shit like pee on submissive men? WHILE DYING?? I imagine it would blow some people's minds. But they found the right viewer in me because if there are two things that fascinate me and that I have a very open mind toward, it's sex and death. 

If it sounds like a show you'd like, give it a try. Be careful--you'll need tissues. 

Grade: A-

***

Queer

Speaking of sex, Luca Guadagnino's adaptation of William Burroughs' novel, has a lot of it. Based on his own life, Burroughs follows William Lee, a gay man in the 1950s who moves from the United States to Mexico City. He pursues a younger man, Eugene Allerton, who is probably not gay but sorta...lets Lee do things to him. Lee eventually convinces Allerton to travel to South America to search for ayahuasca so they can go on a powerful drug trip together.

In the film, William Lee is played by Daniel Craig, and it's a perfect fit. Craig is a handsome older man, but he reeks of desperation and lust in this role. It's believable that he would be able to seduce younger men, but also that these same younger men wouldn't exactly...respect him.

Eugene Allerton is played by Drew Starkey. It's kind of left up to interpretation as to whether Allerton is bisexual or just straight but super chill. He seems amused at Lee's attention, but plays coy until Lee makes an explicit pass and then he allows Lee to pleasure him and continues to hang out with the older man. But Lee is obsessed with Allerton to the point where it's embarrassing and uncomfortable to watch. Trust--this is not a love story. It's a story about loneliness and fumbling desire, which director Guadagnino is reigning king of. 

When the two men make their way to South America and find Dr. Cotter (Lesley Manville), a doctor studying the effects of ayahuasca, the film takes a turn for the slapstick and the surreal. The huge tonal shift from "quiet erotic drama" to "The Three Stooges do drugs" somehow works--or at least it did for me. And the ending of this film will leave you in tears.

Queer is not for everyone. It's a bit slow, it's strange, it's got anachronistic music (which I know some people absolutely hate in movies), and the characters aren't likeable. But it also felt quite profound and, honestly, just a lovely movie to watch. It's languid and non-judgemental. If you're a fan of Luca Guadagnino and his particular brand of film, you'll probably find something to enjoy about Queer. 

Grade: A-

***

From Here to Eternity

I have a soft spot for media about WWII. The 1940s are a fascinating time in the United States: after coming out of a long Depression, the whole country had to work together to win the War. Women worked in goddamned factories and did engineering work. Some men who got classified 4-F literally killed themselves in shame. Teenage boys killed Nazis. 

Obviously, there's plenty that was fucked up about American society and the War itself, but I feel very strongly that we modern people cannot judge the men and women who lived 90 years ago because look where we are now. Are we any better than them? Definitely not, and I believe we're worse in some ways. 

So yes, I romanticize an era where it seemed, at least, that people were more willing to work together and sacrifice for the common cause. That said, people had dumb little petty problems like we do today and From Here to Eternity is about those dumb, petty problems. Well...maybe not too petty. But petty compared to what is about to happen in the film.

From Here to Eternity follows the lives of several men living on the Schofield Barracks in Oahu, Hawai'i in the days leading up to Pearl Harbor. The main players are First Sergeant Milton Warden (Burt Lancaster), who is risking prison time by having an affair with his boss, Captain Holmes' (Phil Ober), wife Karen (Deborah Kerr). Karen and Milton are the ones we see making out on the beach in the iconic scene from the movie.

Then there's Private Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Montgomery Clift), who transfers to Schofield. Captain Holmes finds out that Prewitt is a former professional boxer and asks him to join the company's boxing team. When he refuses, Holmes authorizes his men to bully and intimidate Prewitt until he complies.

Prewitt is friends with Private Angelo Maggio (Frank Sinatra), who makes enemies with Staff Sergeant James R. "Fatso" Judson (Ernest Borgnine), who oversees the stockade and vows that if Maggio ends up in the stockade, he will make Judson's life a living hell. Well, guess who ends up in the stockade? 

So, basically, it's a movie about men being wretchedly inhumane to one another and ends with...the Japanese bombing Pearl Harbor. So not exactly a happy ending. Given the film's reputation, I found it just ok. It felt more like a soap opera instead of a war movie, which was ok by me since I'm more interested in people's daily lives during the War as opposed to the actual bang-bang shooting. But it was a little much. 

Below, I review another WWII drama, The Best Years of Our Lives, and found it a far, far more emotionally accessible watch than From Here to Eternity. FHTE came out in 1953 and I have to say that I find movies from the 1950s very emotionally alienating. I had the same issue with Rebel Without a Cause, which seemed melodramatic and phony to me, and I think FHTE suffers from the same fate. 

Grade: B

***

The Ugly Stepsister

The Ugly Stepsister is a body horror film from the perspective of Cinderella's ugly stepsister. Sisters Elvira (Lea Myren) and Alma (Flo Fagerli) travel with their mother, Rebekka (Ane Dahl Torp) to a castle where the mother marries an older man, assuming he has wealth. When he passes away, it is revealed that he was penny less (as are Rebekka, Elvira, and Alma). Now, the family's only hope is for Elvira to marry into wealth.

As luck would have it, Prince Julian (Isac Calmroth) is hosting a ball in 6 months and he will likely pick his bride at this ball. Alma is too young to go, but Elvira and her lovely stepsister, Agnes (Thea Sofie Loch Naess), plan to go. But while Agnes is beautiful and graceful, Elvira is normal. As in, not pretty enough. So Rebekka forces Elvira to make changes to her appearance with crude plastic surgery and a tapeworm. As Elvira gets prettier, she also becomes crueler, and when Agnes is forced to become to family servant, Elvira calls her "Cinderella" and bosses her around just like her mother does.

The Ugly Stepsister is an ugly movie, with body horror out the wazoo. But what is interesting is that all the torture is self-directed. I thought this movie would be a slasher where it was actually Cinderella tormenting Elvira and Elvira getting her revenge. But no, it's all self-harm and self-mutilation with the goal of getting a prince. While I appreciated the twist on the Cinderella story and the body horror is impressive to say the least, this is not a very pleasant or satisfying viewing experience. It's feminist in the sense that it shows how women destroy themselves to be beautiful and get a man. But it's also just kind of a bummer. 

Grade: B

***

The Best Years of Our Lives

The Best Years of Our Lives won Best Picture for the 1946 Oscars and it's easy to see why. The film follows three WWII veterans as they integrate back into civilian life. 

First, there is Fred Derry (Dana Andrews), a decorated bombardier who suffers from PTSD and who married a party girl before he left for war and comes home to find out that she's an unfaithful gold digger. When Fred can't find work, their relationship turns sour.

Then, there's Al Stephenson (Fredric March) a middle-aged man with a wife and two young adult kids who was an Army Sergeant during the war and finds himself increasingly relying on alcohol to cope in civilian life. 

Finally, there is the best character in the film, Homer Parrish (Harold Russell), a Navy man who lost both hands in the war and is outfitted with two mechanical hooks for hands. Russell was a real life veteran who actually did lose his hands. Although Homer is very adept with his hooks, he sees the pity and the stares from friends and family and he hates it. He is also convinced that his fiance, Wilma (Cathy O'Donnell), doesn't want to be with him anymore (which couldn't be further from the truth--she is obviously deeply in love with him).

I went into The Best Years of Our Lives expecting a typical 1940s "Gee whiz! Golly gee! Let's go down to the soda fountain and forget our worries!" type movie. What I got was a deeply layered, emotional but not sentimental film about three men who must face their own vulnerability head on. 

I love movies that explore masculinity through a non-toxic frame, and boy is this ever one of those. The Best Years of Our Lives explores alcoholism, PTSD, and disability in an honest way with no easy answers. It's remarkable. Even the "villains" of the movie, namely Marie Derry (Virginia Mayo), aren't two-dimensional. Although Marie is a selfish woman, we also kind of understand her point of view. She was expecting Fred to come home and be a celebrated war hero who looked impressive on her arm in his uniform. Instead, he never wants to wear the uniform again and can only get a job as a soda jerk making the same money as a teenager would. 

The movie really has no heroes and villains, just people trying to get along after a world war. I was shocked at how sensitive and deep The Best Years of Our Lives was, and if you're into WWII films, you can't do much better than this one.

Grade: A

***

Manhunter

The Silence of the Lambs is one of my all-time favorite movies and I recently decided to finally read the book. While reading it, I rewatched TSOTL, but I also decided to check out Michael Mann's Manhunter, which is an adaptation of Thomas Harris's first book, Red Dragon. 

It was very boring! It follows Detective Will Graham (William Petersen) as he is pulled out of retirement by Jack Crawford (Dennis Farina) and put on the case of a serial killer known as the Tooth Fairy (because he bites his victims). Graham is the one who hunted down and eventually caught this dude you might know as Dr. Hannibal Lecter (spelled "Lecktor" in this film) and sustained massive injuries to body and psyche in the process. But he goes to visit Lecter (played by Brian Cox) to get insight on the Tooth Fairy.

There is another adaptation of this story called Red Dragon which came out in 2002 and stars Ralph Fiennes as the Tooth Fairy, Edward Norton as Graham, and this dude you might know named Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Lecter. Philip Seymour Hoffman is also in it, and he elevates any movie he's in. So, as I watched Manhunter, I wished I was watching Red Dragon. 

I don't know if it's Michael Mann's direction or the 1980s of it all, but Manhunter fell flat for me. It's not awful, it's just "meh". It certainly wasn't scary, and as good as Brian Cox is as Lecter, he's not Anthony Hopkins. 

Grade: B-

***

Novocaine

This fun action comedy stars Jack Quaid as Nathan Caine, a man born with an inability to feel pain, as well as heat or cold. He has lived his life in a bubble with safety precautions such as tennis balls attached to the pointy parts of his furniture, a gauge in the shower to stop him from making the water too hot, and a deep knowledge of first aid. Because not feeling pain isn't a superpower: it's an extremely deadly condition that kills most sufferers before age 25. But Nathan has beat the odds and the 30-something now works as an assistant manager at a bank.

He even might be on the verge of having a girlfriend! Amber Midthunder plays Sherry, a new bank teller with a mysterious past whom asks Nathan out to lunch after she accidentally causes him to burn himself with coffee. The two hit it off and spend the night together. However, the next day, tragedy strikes: three men dressed as Santa Claus rob the bank. They kill the manager, force Nathan to open the safe, and then take Sherry as a hostage.

Nathan, in full panic mode at the thought of Sherry's safety, steals a cop car and goes on a mission to find the criminals and save Sherry. And, of course, not feeling pain puts him at a distinct advantage.

Novocaine is really fun and goofy. Jack Quaid is charming as hell as a man who has lived in a bubble his whole life, but is secretly a badass who can step up to the plate when the woman of his dreams is in danger. He and Amber Midthunder also have serious chemistry. The movie reminded me a lot of Richard Linklater's Hit Man, which is also about a mild mannered man and a hot, mysterious woman. As someone who prefers "beta" type heroes, I was into it. And there are some real laugh out loud moments in Novocaine as well. 

Grade: B+

***

Twisters

Twisters was very much not my kind of movie. I put it on to have something going in the background, but it did not hold my attention. It's been a while since I've seen Twister and this film is a spiritual sequel to that 1996 classic. But it's so predictable and paint-by-numbers that I really didn't like it at all. 

I don't have much to say about it. If you're into disaster movies, you might like it. It was probably a lot more impressive in a theatre, but at home it's not likely to be all that exciting. Not worth your time, I'd say.

Grade: C

***

Pretty Woman

Gary Marshall's classic tale about a hooker with a heart of gold was one of my movie blind spots. It's the kind of movie you don't even need to watch to have watched, you know? It's all over our culture, with references every way you turn.

After finally watching it, I can now say: it's ok. It really just is...ok. 

My criticisms of this movie are mostly about how I don't buy Julia Roberts in this role, and frankly I don't buy Julia Roberts in any role defined by sexuality. Now, this is just my opinion, but Julia Roberts feels like one of the most non-sexual actresses of all time. She's sweet, she's pretty, but I just don't buy that this lady fucks. Which of course is what makes her perfect for the role of Vivian Ward because Pretty Woman is a movie about a sex worker that you can take your grandma to. And you can't take grandma to a movie that's actually about sex work with characters who actually fuck and suck. Instead, we have this very cleaned up fairytale version of sex work that is really about materialism. 

And that's my second criticism: this is a movie that says "how you look to others is the most important thing". Vivian is saved not by just the love of a good man, but by the money of a good man. Without money, Edward (Richard Gere) is nothing. Literally, this man has no personality. Rarely has a hero in a romantic comedy been this boring and just...bland. 

Pretty Woman came to theatres in 1990, but it's a quintessential 1980s movie. It's all about looks, clothes, money, and material possessions. I could not feel more alienated by the values that Pretty Woman espouses. People often see movies like Pretty Woman as comfort watches--something that doesn't challenge you and makes you feel good and believe in happy endings. Pretty Woman feels emotionally to me what movies like Hereditary feel like to non-horror fans: deeply uncomfortable, wrong, fucked up, and just sad. Pretty Woman is the horror movie--the horror of capitalism that we've all bought into and the horror of a movie about an interesting and edgy topic sanded down to nothing. 

The one bright spot is Hector Elizondo, a Gary Marshall regular, who is cast as the hotel manager and brings dignity, humor, and fun to any movie he's in, including this one. 

Grade: B-

***

The Handmaid's Tale, season 6

The Handmaid's Tale started strong and got increasingly ridiculous as the series diverged from the Margaret Atwood novel. I watched the entire series out of a dark fascination and a sunk-cost fallacy. Finally, the show has ended after 6 seasons.

Many of the problems of the show have to do with the stubborn insistence on following the story of Offred/June Osborn (Elisabeth Moss). While it made sense to follow her for the first season, she quickly became the main character for the entire series and we were forced to watch her make stupid and ridiculous choices that would have gotten her killed instantly if all of this happened in real life. 

Also, there's the issue of Moss being a Scientologist. She is a member of a cult that has ruined lives--including the lives of countless women and children. So it's a little rich that she's the main actor and often episode director on a show about misogyny. 

There's also the issue of the show being race-blind and assuming that a patriarchal theocracy would see all colors as equal, especially with the goal of repopulating the country. This is obviously bullshit. Any patriarchal regime in the United States of America would be racist as well as misogynist, and that's not a conjecture--that's a fact. 

So while the novel is one of the greatest depictions of a dystopia of all time, the show is very pretty looking bullshit. But I followed it to the end. 

Season 6 was by far the worst season, with a rushed and unrealistic ending that again put all the power in June's hands. My friends pointed out how awful the last episode in particular was, focusing more on the healing than on the righteous anger that should still be part of these character's lives. Instead, we see June doing karaoke with newly freed handmaids and forgiving Serena and Aunt Lydia. What a hollow ending to a show that started angry and fierce and slid down a slope into a show that wants to say something about spirituality, faith, and forgiveness but doesn't earn it.

Overall, I'd rate season 6 a D+ and the overall series a B. Now, the book is must-read. It's a classic and one of the most important books ever written, in my opinion. Read the book. It's worth your time and attention.

The revolution is her. Because that's how revolutions work.

Sinners

The hype you've undoubtedly heard about Ryan Coogler's latest film, Sinners, is true: the movie is an immersive, rollicking good time with hot actors and hotter music.

If you know little to nothing about the movie, I recommend going in blind. Just know that it's absolutely worth the price of the ticket.

For everyone else, beware of spoilers ahead...

***

Sinners takes place over the course of a single day and night in the Mississippi Delta in 1932. Twins Smoke (Michael B. Jordan) and Stack (Michael B. Jordan)--not their real names, by the way, just cool monikers they go by--are back in town after making their fortune in Chicago. How did they make that fortune? Stealing from gangsters, obviously. 

They're going to use that money to open up a juke joint in their hometown of Clarksdale and most of the day involves buying an old barn from a racist white guy, recruiting their musically-inclined cousin, Sammie (newcomer Miles Caton), and pianist Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) to be in charge of the music, hiring local grocers Grace and Bo (Li Jun Li and Yao) and Smoke's estranged wife, Annie (a luminous Wunmi Mosaku), to supply and cook catfish for 100 patrons, and convincing field worker Cornbread (Omar Miller) to work as a bouncer.

Stack also tries to avoid Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), a white woman he had a fling with who is furious that he up and left her for Chicago and is now back in town. 

News travels fast in a small town and by nightfall most of Clarksdale's non-white citizens who are also ok with booze and blues are at Club Juke. The drinks are cold, the music is hot, and they can't help but attract the attention of three white people who show up at the door asking to be let in.

If you've seen the preview, you know that the villains in Sinners aren't just any old white folks. They're...creatures of the night. Remmick (Jack O'Connell) shows up at Joan (Lola Kirke) and Bert's (Peter Dreimanis) door, begging to be let in and claiming that he is being hunted by some Native Americans. Once they invite him in, he turns them. Later, the three show up at Club Juke with their fiddles, asking to be let in and allowed to join the party. Smoke and Stack are suspicious and don't allow them inside...but these sneaky vampires eventually find a way.

Sinners is, first and foremost, a love letter to the power of music and how it connects all of us. There is a scene at the juke joint where Sammie starts to play and sing and the power of his music allows other music-makers, past and present, to pierce the veil of time...so we see singers and dancers from many eras and countries jammin' alongside the dancers of Club Juke. It sounds cheesy to type it out, but it was a breathtaking scene done in a single take.

What is interesting is that even the vampires have their own connection to music. Remmick leads his victims in an Irish folks dance, which was a delightfully bizarre sight (who could have guessed that vampires can riverdance?). These vampires are not just mindless predators...they're seductive beings who offer the patrons of Club Juke the opportunity to live in communion with one another--no racism, no hatred, only a hivemind and shared music for all eternity. 

Viewers are going to have many different interpretations of what the message of Sinners is, especially given the film's themes on race, music, and monstrosity. At face value, these vampires seem to be offering something of value: eternal life, the ability to read one another's thoughts (which--in theory at least--can lead to greater empathy), and a "heaven on earth". But at what cost? Smoke's wife, Annie, forces him to promise her that he will kill her if she gets bitten by one of the vampires because she fears her soul being trapped on earth for all eternity...especially since she and Smoke had a child who died as a baby and she knows their son is waiting for her in the great beyond.

For Annie, the power that lies in being immortal is not worth losing her soul in the process. Similarly, after Sammie survives the night, he leaves his little town to become a blues singer--against the wishes of his preacher father. Sammie is willing to leave everything he knows behind to be true to his soul--the soul of a musician. Both Annie and Sammie are true to themselves, despite the cost.

What are we to make of the fact that the vampires are white? Is the movie saying that all white people want to prey on Black people? Maybe, maybe not. I read it as a message against assimilation. In the vampire lore of Sinners, when a victim is turned, they know the thoughts of everyone else in their little vampire family (Remmick being the patriarch of this vampire nest)--they act as a hivemind with the main goal to turn others. Similarly, even "good" white people throughout American history have tried to coerce Black people into assimilating. Sure, they may like Black music and want to party with Black people, but at the end of the day they expect Black people to not be "too" Black. Many white people are more comfortable when Black people act white...and act deferential to white people. 

By rejecting the vampires and fighting them until their own deaths, the patrons of Club Juke who fight back (many get turned by the end of the night) are rejecting the seductive invitation to assimilate. To them, staying true to their own souls is the most important thing...even if they die.

Well, that's one interpretation at least. I'm sure there are others! Sinners clocks in at 2 hours and 17 minutes and, honestly, I would have watched another 40 minutes of it easily. In fact, I think one of the film's flaws is that it feels quite rushed near the end. The pacing is a bit off.

Despite the film's small flaws, Sinners is a powerful, funny, and just plain fun film with gorgeous cinematography and one of the best soundtracks since O Brother Where Art Thou. It's the first must-see movie of 2025. 

Grade: A-