长久以来,小镇居民们对菲利克斯(罗伯特·杜瓦尔 Robert Duvall 饰)的猜测和怀疑从未停歇。有人觉得他生性孤僻是个怪胎,有人觉得他犯下了什么不可饶恕的残酷罪行,有人甚至信誓旦旦的说他将灵魂交予了魔鬼换来了可怕的能力,总而言之,所有的言论最终都以这样的一句话来结尾——“要不然他怎么会常年躲在森林里不愿露面呢?”
某一天,神秘的菲利克斯出现在了惊恐的居民们面前,他的出现除了带来恐慌外,还造就了大家茶余饭后的谈资,因为菲利克斯提出了一个非常奇怪的要求——举办一个他自己的葬礼。唯利是图的殡仪馆老板弗兰克(比尔·默瑞 Bill Murray 饰)看见了其中的商机并且揽下了这笔生意,但在葬礼的准备工作进行之际,弗兰克逐渐发现了菲利克斯那深藏于个人历史中的不为人知的秘密。
Facing a long winter of lockdown and combating a bad case of writer’s block, filmmaker Eric agrees to get a dog with his girlfriend Allie. A modern couple – vegan, ethical, millennial, neurotic – much research and negotiation leads to the arrival of Milly, a rescue from the Dominican Republic. This sets off a riotous chain of new challenges on how to best deal with this addition to the household. As Eric contends with a sinister dog-training programme, his introspection spills out onto his film work, with poor Allie and Milly taken along for the ride. The couple each pursue their own deepheld individual questions surrounding trust, purpose and roots, while wrestling with the idea of what it means to be a modern family. Milly, in the meantime, has a lot on her paws with these two!
Part rom-com, part rescue-dog story, part autofiction, part self-indictment, part family scrapbook, this debut feature was made with remarkable economy and displays a disquieting amount of (often hilarious) emotional authenticity. Filmmaker Ben Petrie and creative collaborator Grace Glowicki play the young couple and in doing so, capture nothing less than what it means to be human.