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| Scene from A Ghost Story |
In case you didn't know, A24 is one of the great purveyors of modern cinema. Since 2013, the studio has found a way to innovate independent cinema by turning each release into an event. As a result, A24 A-to-Z will be an ongoing series that looks at every release from the studio by analyzing its production history, release, criticisms, and any awards attention that it might've received. Join me on a quest to explore the modern heroes of cinema by exploring every hit and miss that comes with that magnificent logo. They may not all be great, but they more than make A24 what it is and what it will hopefully continue to be for ears to come.
Released: July 7, 2017
Release Number: 52
Directed By: David Lowery
Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, McColm Cephas Jr.
Plot: In this singular exploration of legacy, love, loss, and the enormity of existence, a recently deceased, white-sheeted ghost returns to his suburban home to try to reconnect with his bereft wife.
There is a lot to suggest that A Ghost Story is one of the most A24 movies ever conceived. It has a prestigious cast, in the case of Casey Affleck even a recent Oscar winner, and features a director at the height of his power making film in a very esoteric fashion, and it has a cryptic approach to story telling. Director David Lowery brought a low budget charm to the film that reflects in every detail, relying more on ambiance and scenery than any big piece of dialogue. It's a film that challenged the medium by making a man in a sheet look symbolic for most of the 90 minute running time. It's a film with heart and emotion, and it was created before Lowery would experience big time success with Pete's Dragon, which wasn't even completed a day before when A Ghost Story started production. It was supposed to be an easy and quick experiment, but the pressure to make it work created one of the hardest productions of Lowery's career, and one of the most touching films as well.
The idea that would lead to A Ghost Story stemmed from an article called "The Really Big One," written by Kathryn Schulz in The New Yorker. It talked about how the world could end, which filled Lowery with a sense of dread. Seeing as he was an artist, he sought to explore this theme through film, and specifically a ghost. He looked to the model traditionally associated with Halloween costumes: the sheet ghost. He felt captivated to take the idea that was seen as comic and add a deeper poignancy to the affair. The story would be set in a home that resembled the first home that he had bought with his wife, and it would be shot after he completed his previous film, which was the Disney live action remake of Pete's Dragon. In fact, the budget for the film was made off of residuals he got for directing it. Following that film's color correction, he flew out to Dallas, Texas the next day and started work on A Ghost Story. It was to be his summer getaway; an experiment that he wasn't sure would work. It's why he kept it predominantly hush-hush from the press, as he believed that it might not work out.
The film would feature his second collaboration with the duo Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, whom he worked with previously on Ain't Them Bodies Saints. Here they would play a romantic couple that becomes separated when the boyfriend (Affleck) dies. The film's initial drafts featured almost 45 minutes of dialogue between Mara and Affleck, but was excised to a minimal scene because Lowery believed it would help the flow of the film better. It was supposed to be a quiet film, moving slowly through the moments in a meditative way. He was so specific on details that he even had a stopwatch for a hospital scene where he wanted a minute of nothingness. This was to indicate to the audience the sense of longing that these characters would face for the rest of the film. A later character named The Prognosticator would even have more dialogue than Affleck and Mara (the former who would be under a sheet for most of the film) combined. The film was shot in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio in order to make for a claustrophobic, boxed in feel.
The only issue was that the film was seen as stressful for Lowery because of how much it wasn't supposed to be a big deal. The shooting was to be simple, but he felt like he would just waste everyone's time. This lead to stress eating and maybe even the pie-eating scene that Mara has in the film. The long take features the actress eating pie for what is the first time in her life in one long take. Mara would later say that the pie wasn't that great. As for Affleck's sheet ghost, it was equally complicated as there wasn't a way to cover a grown man with a normal bed sheet, nor keep the eyes in place. It even impacted Affleck's ability to act. It would take a hoop and other additional elements to make the look convincing. By the end, it wasn't always Affleck in the shot, and was sometimes replaced by crew members who had similar builds. Singer Kesha would contribute music for the film and also made a cameo.
While the film was shot after Pete's Dragon completed production, A Ghost Story was wrapped by the time that the press for his previous film started. As a result, be worked between both projects for the next few months before finally wrapping it sometime late in 2016. It wasn't until A Ghost Story was completed that it was actually announced publicly. From there, A24 bought the film before it played at Sundance and competed in the Audience Award category. The film's positive feedback would help its success over the months to come. While the first ads for the film emphasized the sheet ghost, it would come to take on a more melancholic vibe as the marketing rolled out. Considering that Affleck, controversially, was coming off of a Best Actor win for Manchester By the Sea, there was plenty of big buzz for the film even though it was another shoestring budget indie made for only $100,000. Because of that, it was considered a box office success even though it only earned $1.9 million.
The film was also a critical success, managing to earn a 91% on critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Michelle Kisner of The Movie Sleuth was onto something with the positive reviews, noting "This film is trying to tell us to not become so myopic that we can't see what's going on around us. Take off the sheet and be free." Matthew Lickona of San Diego Reader would note that even if it was slow, it still made an impact by suggesting, "An adventure in mundanity that makes excellent use of the tension between those two words." Others, like Chris Barton of the Los Angeles Times, would consider its production to be a bit more tedious, decreeing "The film stubbornly refuses to connect with its deeper themes because of a vague, self-consciously arty structure and a pace so deliberate it approaches a stand-still." With all of that said, the film received enough positive buzz to earn several award nominations over the Fall season. It would go on to receive a nomination at the Independent Spirit Film Awards for the John Cassavetes Award. The film would also feature prominently on many Top 10 of 2017 lists, including that of David Ehrlich of Indiewire.
For a film that seems unexceptional on paper, A Ghost Story is maybe one of the greatest surprises that A24 has released. With almost no budget and a story that exists somewhere outside of words, it has the true power that every best indie film has. Even with an all-star cast that features characters eating pie and staring from corners, the film manages to convey a lot about the human condition and makes Lowery's current run all that more impressive. Considering that he's returning to A24 for his next film Green Knight, it won't be the last time that he appears on this list. For now, it's time to push things in a slightly different direction. After a few films that mixed horror and drama effectively, it's time for one more grounded in family tradition. It's also a drama that isn't often told, in part because of its challenging approach to general audiences. Menashe is a film about Judaism, and one that definitely did more than leave a small impression.
Up Next: Menashe (2017)
There is a lot to suggest that A Ghost Story is one of the most A24 movies ever conceived. It has a prestigious cast, in the case of Casey Affleck even a recent Oscar winner, and features a director at the height of his power making film in a very esoteric fashion, and it has a cryptic approach to story telling. Director David Lowery brought a low budget charm to the film that reflects in every detail, relying more on ambiance and scenery than any big piece of dialogue. It's a film that challenged the medium by making a man in a sheet look symbolic for most of the 90 minute running time. It's a film with heart and emotion, and it was created before Lowery would experience big time success with Pete's Dragon, which wasn't even completed a day before when A Ghost Story started production. It was supposed to be an easy and quick experiment, but the pressure to make it work created one of the hardest productions of Lowery's career, and one of the most touching films as well.
The idea that would lead to A Ghost Story stemmed from an article called "The Really Big One," written by Kathryn Schulz in The New Yorker. It talked about how the world could end, which filled Lowery with a sense of dread. Seeing as he was an artist, he sought to explore this theme through film, and specifically a ghost. He looked to the model traditionally associated with Halloween costumes: the sheet ghost. He felt captivated to take the idea that was seen as comic and add a deeper poignancy to the affair. The story would be set in a home that resembled the first home that he had bought with his wife, and it would be shot after he completed his previous film, which was the Disney live action remake of Pete's Dragon. In fact, the budget for the film was made off of residuals he got for directing it. Following that film's color correction, he flew out to Dallas, Texas the next day and started work on A Ghost Story. It was to be his summer getaway; an experiment that he wasn't sure would work. It's why he kept it predominantly hush-hush from the press, as he believed that it might not work out.
The film would feature his second collaboration with the duo Rooney Mara and Casey Affleck, whom he worked with previously on Ain't Them Bodies Saints. Here they would play a romantic couple that becomes separated when the boyfriend (Affleck) dies. The film's initial drafts featured almost 45 minutes of dialogue between Mara and Affleck, but was excised to a minimal scene because Lowery believed it would help the flow of the film better. It was supposed to be a quiet film, moving slowly through the moments in a meditative way. He was so specific on details that he even had a stopwatch for a hospital scene where he wanted a minute of nothingness. This was to indicate to the audience the sense of longing that these characters would face for the rest of the film. A later character named The Prognosticator would even have more dialogue than Affleck and Mara (the former who would be under a sheet for most of the film) combined. The film was shot in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio in order to make for a claustrophobic, boxed in feel.
The only issue was that the film was seen as stressful for Lowery because of how much it wasn't supposed to be a big deal. The shooting was to be simple, but he felt like he would just waste everyone's time. This lead to stress eating and maybe even the pie-eating scene that Mara has in the film. The long take features the actress eating pie for what is the first time in her life in one long take. Mara would later say that the pie wasn't that great. As for Affleck's sheet ghost, it was equally complicated as there wasn't a way to cover a grown man with a normal bed sheet, nor keep the eyes in place. It even impacted Affleck's ability to act. It would take a hoop and other additional elements to make the look convincing. By the end, it wasn't always Affleck in the shot, and was sometimes replaced by crew members who had similar builds. Singer Kesha would contribute music for the film and also made a cameo.
While the film was shot after Pete's Dragon completed production, A Ghost Story was wrapped by the time that the press for his previous film started. As a result, be worked between both projects for the next few months before finally wrapping it sometime late in 2016. It wasn't until A Ghost Story was completed that it was actually announced publicly. From there, A24 bought the film before it played at Sundance and competed in the Audience Award category. The film's positive feedback would help its success over the months to come. While the first ads for the film emphasized the sheet ghost, it would come to take on a more melancholic vibe as the marketing rolled out. Considering that Affleck, controversially, was coming off of a Best Actor win for Manchester By the Sea, there was plenty of big buzz for the film even though it was another shoestring budget indie made for only $100,000. Because of that, it was considered a box office success even though it only earned $1.9 million.
The film was also a critical success, managing to earn a 91% on critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes. Michelle Kisner of The Movie Sleuth was onto something with the positive reviews, noting "This film is trying to tell us to not become so myopic that we can't see what's going on around us. Take off the sheet and be free." Matthew Lickona of San Diego Reader would note that even if it was slow, it still made an impact by suggesting, "An adventure in mundanity that makes excellent use of the tension between those two words." Others, like Chris Barton of the Los Angeles Times, would consider its production to be a bit more tedious, decreeing "The film stubbornly refuses to connect with its deeper themes because of a vague, self-consciously arty structure and a pace so deliberate it approaches a stand-still." With all of that said, the film received enough positive buzz to earn several award nominations over the Fall season. It would go on to receive a nomination at the Independent Spirit Film Awards for the John Cassavetes Award. The film would also feature prominently on many Top 10 of 2017 lists, including that of David Ehrlich of Indiewire.
For a film that seems unexceptional on paper, A Ghost Story is maybe one of the greatest surprises that A24 has released. With almost no budget and a story that exists somewhere outside of words, it has the true power that every best indie film has. Even with an all-star cast that features characters eating pie and staring from corners, the film manages to convey a lot about the human condition and makes Lowery's current run all that more impressive. Considering that he's returning to A24 for his next film Green Knight, it won't be the last time that he appears on this list. For now, it's time to push things in a slightly different direction. After a few films that mixed horror and drama effectively, it's time for one more grounded in family tradition. It's also a drama that isn't often told, in part because of its challenging approach to general audiences. Menashe is a film about Judaism, and one that definitely did more than leave a small impression.
Up Next: Menashe (2017)
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