"I’ve seen it at least fifty times. I often put it on as I’m working or eating breakfast. Kore-eda has made several great, empathetic films––After Life, Nobody Knows, and the underappreciated I Wish––but for me Still Walking is his best. He made it shortly after his mother died, and you can tell. The film’s extraordinary warmth and humor are animated by deep feelings of grief and bitter disappointment. That emotional confusion exists in balance with his formal precision, restraint, and command of detail, and the result is remarkably, minutely true. It makes me happy."

"This convinced me that grief gets easier - In The Leftovers, Tom Perrotta takes an absurd premise—the Rapture has actually occurred—and turns it into a meditation on loss and love. For me, the most difficult thing about getting older has been the loss of my loved ones, particularly my mother. Perrotta explores exactly that: How do we continue to live in a world where the possibility of loss lurks around every corner? I remember sitting on my porch last summer and bursting into tears at the end, not because it's sad but because it's so hopeful."