Ghostlight (2023)

Jack and I both loved this moving story of a taciturn construction worker reeling from a tragedy and joining a community theatre group. Keith Kupferer is joined by his real life wife Tara Mallen and their daughter Katherine Mallen Kupferer, playing his wife and daughter, and all are terrific, as are Dolly De Leon as a petite hot-tempered actress and the rest of the cast of the play within the movie.

Kelly O'Sullivan and Alex Thompson co-direct from a script by O'Sullivan. The details of the tragedy are doled out very slowly and carefully. In an interview O'Sullivan called Tara and Keith "Chicago theatre legends."

Composer Quinn Tsan's twenty tracks can be streamed on Apple Music and probably elsewhere, and is accompanied in the movie by these songs.

This sleeper has six wins and nineteen other nominations, both here and abroad. Apparently the term ghostlight refers to a light left on in an empty theatre, but I didn't hear it uttered in the movie.

O'Sullivan (as screenwriter), Thompson, and Tsan were last blogged for Saint Francis–this is O'Sullivan's feature directing debut. The Mallen-Kupferer family is new to me but not to the craft: Keith has been acting for thirty years, Tara fifteen, and Katherine eight (her age is not published anywhere but I'd guess she's about high school age now). De Leon's dozens of credits include Jackpot! but I didn't recognize her.

 

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences are all lit up, averaging 99 and 92%, respectively. On February 4 we took advantage of our Independent Feature Project streaming privileges (this had two Spirit Award nominations), but it's now available for rent and on Hulu and Disney+ with a subscription.