Clara's Ghost

About

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Actor Ted Reynolds and Clara, his scattered, homemaker wife, welcome their twenty-something daughters—a pair of former child stars—back to their Connecticut home so Ted and the girls can be in a family-themed photo shoot for an airplane magazine. While celebrating their dog’s birthday with amiable drug dealer Poo Poo, the vodka-loving clan’s banter becomes increasingly bitter and petty, and they devolve into a drunken mess. Meanwhile, a specter only Clara can see urges her to confront her self-centered family.

Writer/director/star Bridey Elliott, a Sundance Film Festival Shorts alum (2016’s Affections), blends the voyeuristic cattiness of an insider showbiz comedy with an unsettling portrait of the haunted Clara, setting a striking tone for this funny, wonderfully strange film. Elliott enlists her dad and sister (former SNL stars Chris and Abby Elliott) to riff on their own identities as a multigenerational acting family, while Elliott’s mom (Paula), in her film debut, brings poignancy to a character drifting on the periphery of her egotistical family’s drunken squabbles, but taking center stage in the film’s attention.

Fri. 1/19, noon, PC Library, PC
Sat. 1/20, 9:30 a.m., Ray, PC
Sat. 1/20, 6:45 p.m., Wagner, SLC
Wed. 1/24, 9:30 p.m., Ray, PC
Thu. 1/25, 11:30 a.m., Egyptian, PC

YEAR 2018

SECTION NEXT

COUNTRY U.S.A.

RUN TIME 92 min

COMPANY Smudge Films

WEBSITE http://www.smudge-films.com

EMAIL sarah@winshall.com

Credits

Director
Screenwriter
Producers
Executive Producers
Editor
Cinematographer
Production Designer
Costume Designer
Original Score
Co Executive Producer
Associate Producers
Actor

Artist Bio

Bridey Elliott

Bridey Elliott is a writer, director, and actress. After graduating from the National Theater Institute, she performed stand-up in New York and became a regular at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Elliott starred in the SXSW Grand Jury Prize–winning Fort Tilden in 2015. Her directorial debut, the short comedy Affections, premiered at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival. Bridey can be seen acting in Battle of the Sexes starring Emma Stone and in Steven Soderbergh’s Mosaic project.