The editor’s note: This review was originally published in 2024 SXSW Film & TV festival. Briarcliff Entertainment releases “My Dead Friend Zoe” in theaters on Friday 28 February 2025.
Grief is a funny thing – sometimes literally. Much of the best film and TV about the subject has been told by comedy’s lens; From “It’s a Wonderful Life” to “Fleabag” and everything in between there is a secret society among the grief that feels the power to laugh at or through the pain.
In justice, it is not the only lens through which debut function director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’ frames “My dead friend Zoe”, the story of a crushed veteran (Sonequa Martin-Green) haunted the ongoing presence of her deceased Plato mate (Natalie Morales). Hausmann-Stokes, who together wrote the film with AJ Bermudez, has been true of the personal nature of this story-in the film’s post-credit, even if he had not done so, “my dead friend Zoe” is obsessed with a realism that must come from heartbreaking first experience.
The film opens on merits (Martin-Green) and Zoe (Morales) during their tour and belt Rihanna’s “umbrella” while waiting in a truck-well-known, ominous set for all film guests, but which does not develop into flames and gunfire, which most Hollywood directors would be used as an apt tour to use as an as a matter of use. The chance is great that Hausmann-Stokes and the team of the Meder Veterinarians behind the scenes or in front of the camera-have seen enough blood casting and is sharp enough to know that his film audience does not need more of that pictures either.
Today, merit and Zoe civil life – except that Zoe are no longer with us, just a projection of the merit’s mind. Merit’s grandfather (Ed Harris) shows early signs of Alzheimer’s, so she spends some time with the man who inspired her to get into the armed forces, all while driving (often literally) from the spectan of Zoe and the prospect of talking about her in group therapy (led by a stoic and sedative Morgan Freeman).
Merit’s daily and intertwining problems provide a comforting indie movie blanket for the audience, which is reminiscent of all the upcoming age history where the hero can withstand less mishaps while fleeing from the unbearable. Against this background, a deliberately unpredictable structure of merit and Zoe’s time in the service and how she died, composer Hausmann-Stokes and Kinematographer Matt Sakatani Roe reflects the scrubbing feeling of PTSD.
All this is masterfully held by Martin-Green, from whom you can’t unlock. Merit is sharp of the mind and width, cares deeply about her friends and family, but she is also constantly growing between holding it together and raw, uncontrollable anxiety – often initiated by the revelation of Zoe. As a crystallized memory, Morale’s role is less dynamic through design, but her performance hits every necessary remark of charming, vulnerable, snoring and sometimes manipulative (even with extremely limited material in the way of backstory and motivation). Ed Harris is nothing more than a strength that Merit’s retired lieutenant-most grandfather commands his handful of scenes and pairs fascinating with Martin-Green.
And although “My Dead Friend Zoe” is not completely immune to filmmaking clichés in the genre (a rushed resolution feels comfortable, more like someone off the screen mouth “wrap it up!” Than deserving to serve a self -reflection), it is a visceral look at the veteran experience and the types of loss we can not easily describe or. The message-telegraphed clearly for and about Hausmann-Stoke’s own platoon mates-comes through high and clear.
Rating: B.
“My Dead Friend Zoe” premiered at SXSW 2024. Briarcliff Entertainment releases the film in theaters on Friday 28 February 2025.
