A Ghost Story

Ghosts, ghosts, ghosts…we see them every day, but how much do we know or understand about the spectral figures who appear so regularly in our lives? Director David Lowery has covered a number of bases with his output so far, from nihilistic romance (Ain’t Them Bodies Saints) to children’s adventure (Pete’s Dragon) to retro feelgood crime romps (The Old Man and the Gun) to CGI-heavy takes on epic literature (The Green Knight) so he seems like he might be a good person to ask about exactly what these mysterious things that go bump in the night are… Lowery’s A Ghost Story is an experimental piece of work that announces its art-house pretentions with a squared-off Academy ratio. Trapping the image in the centre of the screen works for this transcendental meditation of life and death; Casey Affleck plays C, whose relationship with M (Rooney Mara) is cut short abruptly by a car accident; this isn’t Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore, so don’t expect the kind of sweet resolution that was offered in Ghost… Having shuffled off this mortal coil, C gets up from the mortician’s slab, and returns home under the traditional ‘white-sheet and eyeholes’ garb of a ghost, only to find that she cannot see him; he watches in agony as, grief-stricken, she eats an entire pie from the fridge, but is unable to connect with her grief. Even after M finally moves on and moves out, C remains doomed to haunt the same space he previously lived in, until he spots another ghost in a neighbouring house…. Sure, A Ghost Story is a mood piece and not for everyone, but it’s also a brave and original piece of cinema that muses thoughtful on the big issues; a party scene with Will Oldham aka Bonnie Prince Billy talking about the universe is the closest we get to any kind of expository explanation. Scary, but in a philosophical way, A Ghost Story is an offbeat film to be savoured for its unique charm, and taking a fresh approach to cinematic storytelling. It’s not a lot of laughs, but it stay’s with you…