A Ghost Story (2017)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

A Ghost Story (2017) – D. Lowery

To be honest, I was a little apprehensive about this one.  Would it be too depressing? After all, the description suggests it is about love and loss and a ghost that lingers after death.  And it is all those things.  In fact, the ghost lingers long after love and loss are maybe only a distant memory.  In fact, the ghost seems tied to the place (as in the classic “haunted house” genre) rather than to a person.  Director David Lowery manages to allude to the tropes of that genre while instead making what is really an experimental film (but one that is absorbing and watchable and not hard work at all, in case that term turns you away).  Amusingly, the ghost is the well-known spectre in a sheet (with two sad eyes cut out) which may have a Brechtian effect (?).  Although the film is virtually wordless, somewhere in the middle there is a long monologue by Will Oldham (yes, Bonnie Prince Billy) that tries to put our humble existence into context.  So, yeah, it’s an existential statement but also cosmic and spiritual, sad and stirring, and possibly romantic (that last scene may or may not belie this).  Only 90 minutes and so worth it!