The One I Love (2014)

In this clever story, Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass go to a country retreat recommended by their marriage counselor and then some supernatural things happen. It's funny, especially in its use of therapy catch phrases and learned behaviors. It's leaving Netflix on May 29, according to a New York Times article, so get it while you can.

Charlie McDowell, son of Mary Steenburgen and Malcolm McDowell, makes his feature directorial debut and his mother does one of the voices in a sequence of voicemails. He is the voice of "Madison" in that sequence. Ted Danson, Steenburgen's husband since the mid 1990s, plays the marriage counselor. This is also the first feature for screenwriter Justin Lader.

The retreat location, shot in Ojai, California, is gorgeous. Well, well, it's Mary and Ted's house. See the guest house here on houzz.

I won't tell you which one, but there was a horror movie released recently with a similar supernatural gimmick. I avoided that one because its supernatural threat was deadly. This has absolutely no blood.

I'm streaming the mostly eerie music by Danny Bensi & Saunder Juriaans on Apple Music and it's also on Spotify and more. Dedicated to the One I Love (stream it on Spotify) by the Mamas & The Papas plays over the credits, and I will sing Cass's alto harmony every time.

Actress Rooney Mara, whom McDowell was dating at the time, served as costume designer under a pseudonym. According to the internet, McDowell is currently engaged to actress Lily Collins.

Moss was last blogged for Shirley and Bensi & Juriaans for The White Tiger. After I wrote about Duplass in Tully, he was in Bombshell, eleven episodes of The Morning Show, and more. Danson was most recently in these pages for Hearts Beat Loud, followed by the series finales of The Good Place and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the titular role of Mr. Mayor.

Since this came out in 2014 McDowell has directed one other feature (Mara was in it) and a few episodes of some serieses that we like a lot (Silicon Valley, Dear White People, On Becoming a God in Central Florida), and has another feature in development (Collins is set to star). Lader is the screenwriter for the other two McDowell projects as well.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are in like with this, averaging 82 and 76%, respectively. It's not Oscar material but Jack and I enjoyed it.