| My Dead Friend Zoe is a devastating comedy, meaning that it’s a comedy but does not shy away from the powerful themes of PTSD, depression, moving on, and aging parents with dementia. The type of movie that will have you laughing through most of it until the end when you realize all the tears rushing down your face. A beautiful portrait of one army vet trying to move on but all the forces in her life showing her how stuck in the past she is. | | 2025
Directed by: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
Screenplay by: A.J Bermudez, Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, Cherish Chen
Starring: Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales
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Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Zoe (Natalie Morales) are serving in the Army in Afghanistan together; Zoe is the outspoken one, going on a rant about how if she’s ever found in “one of those bullshit PTSD therapy sessions,” to please kill her. Cut to present-day with Merit and Zoe in one of those PTSD group therapy sessions. Zoe is rolling her eyes and very rudely slouching in her seat and talking over others, Merit is softly trying to get her to be quiet, until you realize only Merit can see and hear her. As the title has already told us, Zoe is dead.
If your original concern was that Natalie Morales plays the dead friend and therefore wouldn’t be in the movie much, don’t worry my living friends, Natalie Morales’s Zoe is present through most of the movie, she’s the one providing hilarious one-liners and unhelpful advice to her still living friend. Morales also, perhaps surprisingly given her character is dead, delivers a very commanding and layered performance. She has combined all of Zoe’s pre-death characteristics (her confidence with a bite of self-deprecating humour, or her I-can-do-anything attitude) with a carefree vibe since she is now dead and has nothing left to live for, except being there for her friend Merit. When Merit starts trying to do things on her own, Zoe doesn’t handle that so well.
Merit has been on her own (not counting Zoe always by her side) since returning from Afghanistan since she’s been unable to hold down a job and has been court-ordered to attend group therapy sessions. She’s understandably angry, pretty much all the time, and you can also see how Zoe’s presence helps her control her emotions, she no longer feels alone. This is a healthier cope than drugs or alcohol, but still not healthy.
When her grandfather was found walking on the side of the highway lost and confused, Merit was called to the hospital, he has been diagnosed with early-stage dementia and is going to need someone at home, or move him into a nursing home. I find a lot of movie shoe-horn in an aging parents storyline that either doesn’t fit or is under-written, but that’s not the case here at all. This storyline fits in perfectly with the themes of the movie and is more of the main plot than a secondary storyline. Merit’s grandfather (Ed Harris) is also an Army vet and also recently lost his wife. The film compares and contrasts the differences in their generations and their wars and then returning home from it.
Moving in with her grandfather also introduces Merit to another character that needs to be mentioned. Utkarsh Ambudkar plays a manager at the Shady Acres retirement home (and yes, he does manage to say that name with a straightface) and love interest to Merit. It’s a very low-key romance because that’s not what this movie is about. Zoe does not like Merit going to out to meet someone else because that suggests she’s moving on without her, and that is what this movie is about.
This movie is personal to the filmmaker and comes from real events. When those words with his real friends come up before the credits, the whole movie hits even harder. The movie is already very good but pairing it with a real issue, and putting actual numbers out there, just makes it more meaningful and elevates it into something truly special.
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