19 Apr

Posted at 15:56h in Film by

The brilliance, and terror, of Florian Zeller’s The Father, is that we’re living inside the mind of an aging man losing his identity to Dementia. To watch it from the outside is bad enough. I know. I was that daughter too. But to be the one losing his grip on who he was is truly heartbreaking. Reality’s blurred, time’s not static, past and present are mixed up with each other, and people are not who they seem; confused with memory, fantasy, and warring parts of The Father, himself. Florian Zeller is a keen observer of a devastating disease that no...

22 Feb

Posted at 22:19h in Film by

Even in the No Exit tragedy that Alzheimer’s is, bits and pieces of that old self still come through. Julianne Moore’s heartbreakingly real performance couldn’t show this more clearly. And, even, as Still Alice poignantly reveals – sometimes something flowers into bloom that wasn’t free to live fully before. A buried part of Alice is found. What makes that possible? Alzheimer’s doesn’t only rob its victims of their minds. It strips away psychological defenses. Words and intellect are Dr. Alice Howland’s life. She also uses them as barriers against feeling – for understandable reasons. Her mother and sister died suddenly and tragically...