It demands patience and an open mind, but Lowery’s return to his indie roots after Pete’s Dragon is a highly unusual and, at times, emotionally shattering fable.
A long-winded lecture of sorts by a man played by Will Oldham initially distracts as he explains how humanity is doomed but, for the most part, Lowery has crafted a captivating reflection on the enormity of mankind's existence and the tiny part we each play in it.
Extraordinary. One of the year’s most original and best films.
Affleck plays a sheet-wearing spirit trying to connect with Rooney Mara’s widow in David Lowery’s audacious and affecting meditation on love, loss and letting go.
It’s a quiet meditation on life, love, bereavement and the difficulty of letting go – a supernatural story that wouldn’t even frighten a mouse.
Ultimately A Ghost Story, like all ghost stories, is a film about letting go. That this one requires audiences to let go of their own preconceptions of how a film like this should unfold is what makes it special.
There are all sorts of questions rising to the surface in a bold experiment of a film that can only be called haunting.
Even covered in a sheet, Affleck exudes heartache in David Lowery’s gorgeously sad tale of love and loss.
David Lowery on why he made A Ghost Story.