Film

The Death & Life of John F. Donovan

Name: The Death & Life of John F. Donovan
Genre: Drama
Released: 2019
Cast: Kit Harington, Natalie Portman, Jacob Tremblay, Susan Sarandon, Kathy Bates

Drama
Slow-burning

A melancholic exploration of celebrity, loneliness, and a transformative correspondence between a famous actor and a troubled boy. Xavier Dolan's film moves between past and present, wrestling with how connection across vast distances can save a life—and how that same connection can be misread by the world. For anyone moved by quiet stories about being seen.

TMDb rating

3.4

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Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Death & Life of John F. Donovan

The wildcard

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My Own Private Idaho1991

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Manchester by the Sea2016

Grief, shame, and the quiet ways a person can be trapped by their own past. It's about connection interrupted and the long work of living with that loss.

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Lion2016

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A Ghost Story2017

Haunting and strange, about love persisting across time and the ache of being unable to reach the person you've lost. Like Donovan, it takes the metaphysical seriously.

But Aggressively weird. A twenty-minute scene of someone eating pie. Not for anyone wanting realism or conventional narrative.

Lean on Pete2018

A boy on his own, finding companionship with a horse and a drifter. It's about survival and the small graces that make survival possible, without ever asking for credit.

But Sparse and quiet to the point of loneliness. Very little happens in the way plot usually happens. Some see depth; others see vacancy.

Lamb2021

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An Icelandic couple's grief manifests as something magical and devastating. Entirely in a different register from Donovan—spare, mythic, almost fable-like—but equally about how we remake our relationships with the dead to survive.

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The Act of Killing2012

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