One in all our favourite motion pictures of 2025 to this point is Sarah Friedland’s debut function Familiar Contact, which opens in theaters in New York on Friday, June 20. The movie follows an octogenarian with dementia, performed by Kathleen Chalfant, as she settles into her new life in a nursing house. It’s a fragile, touching, and shocking work that evades clichéd depictions of aged individuals—thanks partially to the collaborative course of by means of which it was made. The movie was shot in an actual care facility in Pasadena, with residents collaborating within the manufacturing course of and showing within the movie. 

Chalfant, a stalwart of the New York stage, anchors the movie with a towering efficiency. On in the present day’s episode, Film Comment invited Molly Haskell, herself a stalwart of American movie criticism, to interview Chalfant, after studying she was notably impressed by Chalfant’s work within the movie. Their fascinating dialog touches upon depictions of getting older onscreen, Chalfant’s preparation for the position, how the movie resists sentimentality, and extra.