Remake

Remake may be a film about death and loss and grief, but it’s not one of conclusions. In the end, McElwee does something perhaps unexpected but also heartbreaking and indescribably generous: He preserves the mystery of his son’s life.

In exquisite, excruciating detail, Remake captures all the beauty and the pain.

Remake is emotionally shattering.

Remake, like all of McElwee’s personal cinema, embody the passage of time itself. In other words, it’s the stuff of life.

Remake is certainly a movie about memory, especially bad memories, but in a Proustian sense it’s a movie in search of lost time — both the time McElwee spent with his son and the time slipping away as the director and his peers grow old and die.

This isn’t solely a movie about grief, but about the ways grief must fit into our lives.

It’s a touching and moving homage that reminds us of the precious spirit that directs us towards remembering the deep love we have for family, through all its ups and downs.