David Lowery’s A Ghost Story closed out the Chicago Critics Film Festival with a nearly sold out crowd.

Reuniting his Ain’t Them Bodies Saints co-stars, Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara, writer-director Lowery returned to Sundance this year with a film that could only be made as such.  A story of this nature could not be done in any other medium, be it print or visual.

Affleck stars as a white-sheeted ghost who returns to his home with hope of consoling his wife.  Unfortunately for him, she can’t see him and there’s nothing he can really do but just watch as life slips away in front of him.  More people move in, the house gets destroyed, a huge complex is built, and he’s still there just journeying through time.  I still don’t understand how the ghost manages to go back in time but it happens and eventually, he finds what he’s looking for and moves on.

It’s truly an unforgettable meditation if you want to put it that way.

The Chicago audience was the first to see it since playing Sundance.  A24 will open A Ghost Story in NY/LA on July 7th.  It will open in Chicago on July 14th.