Steph:
This is a seriously slow burn but worth the gradual unraveling with all the ghostly trees and shadows and the mirrors and neon lighting and creaky doors, and the film is so unsettling, especially with the constant ominous flute playing over it all, and since I’m a sucker for films about grief and aging and existential struggles with mortality, this one hit me pretty hard—eventually. ⏰⏰⏰⏰
Josh:
Tilda Swinton is phenomenal in a dual role in Joanna Hogg’s gothic “ghost story,” and “ghost story” is in quotes because while this is a smartly reflexive and sometimes very moving drama about what haunts us—the “ghosts” we all carry with us—Hogg shies away from genre elements so pointedly (for example, nearly every creepy sound or menacing musical cue in the movie turns out to have a pedestrian diagetic explanation, to a nearly comic degree) that their halfhearted deployment seems like nothing more than a cinematic device, but it still works on a dramatic level, and Louis, you may have heard, is a rare talent. ⏰⏰⏰
The Bare Minimum 