CHRONIC World Cinema

Tim Roth turns in an understated, beautiful performance as an end-of-life caregiver in this quiet, delicate portrait of those who dedicate themselves to hospice work. Director Michel Franco returns to AFI FEST (AFTER LUCIA, AFI FEST 2012) with a gentle, smartly crafted narrative. The story follows David (Roth), a nurse who develops intense relationships with his patients. This is storytelling that does much with little dialogue; there is an intense, impressive physicality to the film, seen particularly in Roth’s hulking, haunted character as he tends to the frailest patients. It is riveting and heartbreaking to watch David as he struggles to keep calm while the lives of those around him start to permanently unravel. CHRONIC embraces the human condition in openhearted and surprising ways, showing that life is at once complex and messy even as we try to find order. – Lane Kneedler