TANGLES Special Screenings

Leah Nelson, in her feature directorial debut, adapts Sarah Leavitt’s acclaimed graphic memoir “Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me” into one of this year’s most heartfelt animated films, by turns moving and surprisingly mirthful. In San Francisco 1999, recent college grad and Maine transplant Sarah (voiced by Abbi Jacobson) pursues her dreams of becoming a professional illustrator, working at hip gay magazine Outspoken and enjoying the city’s vibrant queer nightlife scene, where she meets and falls in love with biker Donimo (Samira Wiley). But on a visit home to her family, Sarah notices something is off with her mother, Midge (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). She discusses it with her father Rob (Bryan Cranston) and sister Hannah (Beanie Feldstein), who blame Midge’s forgetfulness and moodiness on menopause. But following a frightening mishap during a family vacation to Mexico City, Midge, only in her mid-50s, is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Now thrust into the role of caregiver to her mother, Sarah must put her San Francisco life on hold to help her family contend with Midge’s inexorable decline. The time Sarah spends with her mother during these final years also prompts memories from her youth, and the vibrant woman Midge was who raised her daughter to be brave in the face of life’s challenges. The inky, black-and-white artwork alternates between realism and surreal, expressionistic scenes illustrative of the characters’ mental states. And throughout her story, Leavitt weaves in levity and dark humor, true to herself, her family and the many laugh-or-cry moments they experience together. The film’s outstanding voice cast also includes Seth Rogen, Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, Bowen Yang and Pamela Adlon. –Todd Hitchcock