Complex Veteran Grief Takes the Spotlight

Editor’s Note: This evaluation was initially printed throughout the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival. Briarcliff Entertainment releases “My Dead Friend Zoe” in theaters Friday, February 28, 2025.

Grief is a humorous factor — typically actually. Much of the perfect movie and TV on the topic has been instructed by the lens of comedy; from “It’s a Wonderful Life” to “Fleabag” and every thing in between, there’s a secret society among the many grieving, who know the ability of laughing at or by the ache.

In equity, that’s not the one lens by which debut characteristic director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes frames “My Dead Friend Zoe,” the story of a shattered veteran (Sonequa Martin-Green) haunted by the continued presence of her deceased platoon mate (Natalie Morales). Hausmann-Stokes, who co-wrote the movie with AJ Bermudez, has been vocal concerning the private nature of this story — together with within the movie’s post-credits — however even when he hadn’t, “My Dead Friend Zoe” is possessed of a realism that has to come back from heartbreaking firsthand expertise.

The movie opens on Merit (Martin-Green) and Zoe (Morales) throughout their tour, belting Rihanna’s “Umbrella” whereas they wait in a truck — a well-known, ominous arrange for any moviegoer, however which doesn’t devolve into flames and gunfire, which most Hollywood administrators can be tempted to make use of as a crutch. Chances are that Hausmann-Stokes — and the staff of fellow vets behind-the-scenes or in entrance of the digital camera — has seen sufficient bloodshed, and is astute sufficient to know that his movie’s viewers doesn’t want extra of that imagery both.

In the current day, Merit and Zoe navigate civilian life — besides that Zoe is not with us, only a projection of Merit’s thoughts. Merit’s grandfather (Ed Harris) is displaying early indicators of Alzheimer’s, so she spends a while with the person who impressed her to enter the armed forces, all whereas working (usually actually) from the specter of Zoe and the prospect of speaking about her in group remedy (led by a stoic and calming Morgan Freeman).

Merit’s day-to-day and intertwining troubles present a comforting indie-film blanket for the viewers, paying homage to any coming-of-age story the place the hero endures minor mishaps whereas escaping the insufferable. Against that backdrop, a intentionally erratic build-up of Merit and Zoe’s time within the service and the way she died, composer Hausmann-Stokes and cinematographer Matt Sakatani Roe mirror the jarring really feel of PTSD.

All of that is held collectively masterfully by Martin-Green, who you can’t look away from. Merit is sharp of thoughts and wit, cares deeply about her family and friends, however she’s additionally continuously teetering between holding it collectively and uncooked, uncontrollable anguish — usually instigated by the apparition of Zoe. As a crystallized reminiscence, Morales’ position is by design much less dynamic, however her efficiency hits each crucial be aware of charming, susceptible, snarky, and at occasions manipulative (even with extraordinarily restricted materials in the way in which of backstory and motivation). Ed Harris is nothing in need of a drive as Merit’s retired Lieutenant-Colonel grandfather, commanding his handful of scenes and pairing mesmerizingly with Martin-Green.

And although “My Dead Friend Zoe” isn’t fully resistant to filmmaking cliches of the style (a rushed decision feels handy, extra like somebody off display mouthed “Wrap it up!” than Merit incomes a degree of self-reflection), it’s a visceral have a look at the veteran expertise and the sorts of loss we are able to’t simply describe or course of, and the isolation that comes with that. That message — telegraphed clearly for and about Hausmann-Stokes’ personal platoon mates — comes by loud and clear.