Doctor Sleep (2019)

Full disclosure, I’m the adult child of an alcoholic, which definitely gave this film a particularly resonant power with me, but you don’t need to bring that baggage to the film for its humanity and horror to grip you. I also haven’t read the novel Doctor Sleep yet, but nonetheless, the film left me astounded by how Stephen King, decades after centering the destructive effects of alcoholism on family patriarch Jack Torrance in The Shining, turns compassionately to his son Danny, now grown and struggling (and, in Mike Flanagan’s wonderful film, played brilliantly by Ewan McGregor). There’s just so much wisdom here, about growth, about forgiveness and healing, about how finding a way to be kind and offer something to others can be what makes life meaningful.

Oh, and it’s also fun as hell, a story about a classic battle of good and evil, with the evil side represented by a group of soul vampires led by Rebecca Ferguson, and the good side helmed by Abra Stone (Kyleigh Curran), a young Black girl with psychic powers. If you can, watch the Director’s Cut. It makes a good film even better. — Carolyn Petit