The Skeleton Twins

Two siblings who have not spoken for years meet again. Milo and Maggie are twins. Milo lives in Los Angeles, his attempts at acting have gone nowhere, and he is in hospital after a suicide attempt. Maggie is married and living what looks like an orderly life outside New York. On hearing the news she brings him to stay. Neither of them is well and each hides it from the other. The film's movement is built on that concealment: their family history, their father's death and a relationship Milo had as a teenager open slowly. The best-known scene is a song: the two of them mime along to an eighties track at home, and in those three minutes more is understood about their relationship than in the rest of the film. Bill Hader plays Milo and Kristen Wiig plays Maggie. Both come from comedy and are in dramatic parts here; their long history of working together carries an ease into the scenes. The screenplay won an award at the Sundance film festival in 2014. A balanced example for anyone who likes character-driven American independent film. Before you watch, know this: it takes suicide and depression as its direct subject, and draws its humour from inside that subject.