Review: Tangles

Official Synopsis: Sarah (Abbi Jacobson) is forced to return to the conservative small town where her bizarre family lives to take care of her mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfuss); she must deal with the cruel reality of her mother's Alzheimer disease, and become the daughter they need.

Tangles is based on writer Sarah Leavitt's graphic novel of the same name. It follows her mother's diagnosis of Alzheimer's and I think she describes this work best: "my goal was to create an unsparing documentation of our family’s journey, including not only the grief, anger and fear, but also the moments of love and joy and even some dark humor."

All of that is perfectly captured in this film. I couldn't help but think of the other dementia centered films from recent memory - Amour, Away From Her, Still Alice, The Father - This one I liked so much better because of the dark humor. There's an ongoing bit with the flight attendants' announcements on an airplane that I just loved. And you really feel like you get to know Sarah. I especially loved the flashback sequences with her mother, who seemed so unbelievably cool. Anyone losing a parent is sad, but Sarah's mom sounded like she rocked and that makes it even harder.

The voice work is incredible, Jacobson and Louis-Dreyfuss are outstanding. Bryan Cranston is also giving a great performance as Sarah's father. I also loved Samira Wiley as Sarah's girlfriend Domino. 

This is a personal preference, but wish the film was in color. I get why it isn't. Sarah's original graphic novel was also black and white, but the animation was so good that I just missed the vibrancy of colors. This is really the only negative I have about the film. I think it's very well done, and I hope we see it in the Best Animated Feature line up at the Oscars. It deserves to be there.

Grade: A-