Cloudburst

Thom Fitzgerald's 2011 film adapts his own stage play. Stella and Dot are an older couple in Maine who have lived together for more than thirty years. When Dot's granddaughter puts her in a nursing home, Stella breaks her out and the two set off for Canada so they can marry. On the way they pick up a young hitchhiker travelling to see his dying mother, and an unexpected closeness forms between the three. The film is about how a queer relationship in old age is made invisible both legally and practically, and Stella's crudeness and anger are the direct result. The ease between Olympia Dukakis and Brenda Fricker carries the places where the script takes the easy route. The tone moves between comedy and grief. Who it's for: viewers who like queer road movies and stories centred on old age. Who it's not for: anyone who would rather not approach death and care homes.