''The Grief of Others'' is a 2015 American tragedy film written and directed by

Patrick Wang Patrick Wang is an American writer, economist, director, and actor. His first feature film, the acclaimed hit Independent film, indie film ''In the Family (2011 film), In the Family'', was released in 2011. He later directed the acclaimed two-part ...

. It is based on the 2011 novel ''The Grief of Others'' by Leah Hager Cohen. The film stars

Wendy Moniz Wendy Moniz (born January 19, 1969) is an American television actress. Her roles include Dinah Marler in the CBS soap opera ''Guiding Light'', as Rachel McCabe in ''Nash Bridges'', and as Louisa Archer in ''The Guardian (TV series), The Guardian' ...

Trevor St. John Trevor Marshall St. John (born September 3, 1971) is an American actor. He portrayed Todd Manning/Victor Lord Jr. on the ABC daytime drama ''One Life to Live'', and has starred in various primetime shows and films. He is known for his performanc ...

Rachel Dratch Rachel Susan Dratch (born February 22, 1966) is an American actress, comedian, and writer. After she graduated from Dartmouth College she moved to Chicago to study improvisational theatre at The Second City and ImprovOlympic. Her breakthrough ro ...

, Chris Conroy, Sonya Harum and

Mike Faist Michael David Faist (; born January 5, 1992) is an American actor. An alumnus of the American Musical and Dramatic Academy, Faist is the recipient of a Grammy and an Emmy, with nominations for a Tony and a British Academy Film Award. Faist be ...

Cast

as Ricky Ryrie *

as John Ryrie *

as Madeleine Berkowitz *Chris Conroy as Lance Oprisu *Jenna Cooperman as Fiona *

as Gordie Joiner *Sonya Harum as Jessica Safransky *Theo Iyer as Hugh Chaudhuri *

Oona Laurence Oona Laurence (born August 1, 2002) is an American actress. She is best known for the role of Matilda Wormwood in ''Matilda'' on Broadway alongside Bailey Ryon, Milly Shapiro, and Sophia Gennusa. She began her career as a New York City-based ch ...

as Biscuit Ryrie *Henry Gagliardi as Young Paul Ryrie

Release

The film premiered at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

on March 15, 2015.

Critical reception

The film was received with positive reviews.

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives a score of 92% based on 9 reviews, with an average score of 7.6/10. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

it scored 78% based on reviews from 8 critics, considered "Generally favorable reviews". The ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' said "It's an artful portrait of a world that refuses the order we try to impose on it when we close ourselves off to heartache, doubt and pain." ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' said the film is "A delicate, elliptically structured portrait of six wounded souls coping with the aftermath of tragedy." The ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' said "Harder to miss, however, in every grainy 16mm shot and heartfelt performance is the movie's understated soul, as Wang guides us, sometimes awkwardly, usually touchingly, from isolation and secrets into understanding and connection."

References

External links

* 2015 films 2015 drama films American drama films Films directed by Patrick Wang 2010s English-language films 2010s American films {{2010s-drama-film-stub