I watched this beautiful film with friends on a warm night last summer, on the big outdoor screen upstate, and kinda filed it away for “later”. In the meantime, a lot of glittering gems pushed their way into my queue. But with it’s Best Picture Oscar nomination, Celine Song’s Past Lives came back into sharp focus for me, and tonight was the perfect “later”.

It’s hard to say what makes this story so moving… but it manages to touch a few places that are difficult to access, in a very non-Hallmark way. Greta Lee was perfectly cast as Nora, although she did seem to have aged significantly more than her childhood sweetheart Hae Sung (Teo Yoo). In the end, though, it doesn’t really matter. The bond between them is totally palpable. Of course I cried.

Lovely to see new guests here tonight, along with our loyal regular crew.