Ghostlight, Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson’s new feature premiering at the Sundance film festival, traffics in a similar leveling of mundanity and insight. (It’s also written by O’Sullivan.) There’s an appealing naturalness to the project, probably owing to its tight-knit origins: O’Sullivan and Thompson are real-life partners directing a real-life family in their city, Chicago.
Dan Mueller (Keith Kupferer) is an emotionally bottled construction worker, all slumped shoulders and soft mumblings, except for the few moments he bursts forth with startling rage. He’s distant from wife Sharon (Kupferer’s wife Tara Mallen), an elementary school music teacher seeking to reconnect. Neither know how to handle Daisy (their daughter Katherine Mallen Kupferer, bristling with talent), a high-schooler with a near-terminal case of teenage nightmare syndrome. It’s often funny, how easily Daisy can escalate and derail a moment, until O’Sullivan’s finely tuned script and Mallen Kupferer’s hot-blooded performance reveal just how derailed she is.
Ghostlight (2024)
Directed by: Kelly O’Sullivan, Alex Thompson
Starring: Keith Kupferer, Katherine Mallen Kupferer, Tara Mallen, Dolly De Leon, Hanna Dworkin, Dexter Zollicoffer, Tommy Rivera-Vega, Alma Washington, Lia Cubilete, Marlene Slaughter
Screenplay by: Kelly O’Sullivan
Production Design by: Linda Lee
Cinematography by: Luke Dyra
Film Editing by: Michael Spencer Smith
Costume Design by: Michelle Bradley
Art Direction by: Pavit Gandhi, Anna Kotecki, Amanda Mutai
Music by: Quinn Tsan
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: IFC Films
Release Date: June 21, 2024
Visits: 4
