FAMILIAR TOUCH – ★★★★

Beautiful film about an ageing woman who is suffering from dementia and is put into an aged care facility by her son. She’s comparatively lucky to have a caring son, the financial means to be in a nice place, and surrounded by friendly staff who seem to have endless time and patience, but it still paints a pretty depressing picture of old age. Having lost a parent in recent years, there were moments that hit me emotionally. Between this film and the documentary yesterday (Careless), I felt gratitude that my mother didn’t have to have a particularly long drawn out stage between independent living and her passing.

THE BALTIMORONS – ★★★★

A Jay Duplass (of the Duplass brothers) film, though I believe both are credited as producers. These two are pretty prolific, and don’t always hit the target, but I really enjoyed this film set on Christmas Eve in Baltimore. It begins with an ex-comic who’s six months sober visiting his future parents-in-law with his fiance for a family meal, but is quickly diverted when he has a dental emergency and thus starts a humourous adventure. Being a Duplass film, it had darker comedy tones, but mostly hit the right notes. Excellent performances by the leads as well. A nice end MIFF weekend two for this year.