At the end of the evening of the most recent film screening at my house, I took a group shot of the three movies I have shown in 2026 and the one that is on the docket next, Arrival. It is an eclectic bunch. Links to event pages here, if you are interested.

Looking at the DVD case for Lars and the Real Girl, I notice my placement of “Dassler.” That couldn’t have been accidental, could it have? Most likely not. I resonated with Lars on several levels. Long, complicated grief over the early death of a mother; related complicated emotions around romantic relationships. There the similarities end, however, I being rather more gregarious and socially adept. Oh, and there are also his clothes! Around the time this movie came out, quirky ties and cardigans were absolutely my aesthetic.

Actually, watching this movie twenty years after it came out was a little like opening a time capsule displaying the quirky, cool (dare I say hipster) aesthetics and soundtrack choices of the aughts, though hipster (i.e. ironic/insincere/insufferable) this film certainly is not. I think that its sincerity presses right up to the edge of schmaltz (though perhaps some may feel it strays a few steps beyond).

The discussion following the movie pretty much led itself. That is, most folks were so taken with the movie that they were eager to talk about it. The movie’s theme of caring for those who are frail within the context of community is pretty on the nose, but it was gratifying to hear people picking up on it and being moved to consider how that might work off of the screen in the real world.

Art, of course, is often an exaggeration or a distillation, something that writes its meaning in bold or condenses how real life works. Sometimes even stories of real lives are amended to shorten healing which may take much longer or sanitized to leave out the unseemly bits. And Lars is no different. It does end rather tidily, though I think satisfactorily enough. Margo says to Lars, “We should catch up with others,” freighted with meaning, I think. And he asks her to go for a walk.

I do wish for a world in which the central theme of the movie, of community collectively caring for individuals in need, were more widely applied. I am pleased to have been a member of several churches in which people have done this, organically forming into the “little platoons” of care, the small flotillas to help bear up the foundering. The difference is that in real life, aside from meal trains, etc. for people in temporary need, people in need may not significantly change or improve at all. It is there that the power and the strength of God in individuals and in community must provide the staying power for care to continue to flow out through us.