Hollywood has never been particularly good at making room for stories about older people whose lives remain complicated, whose desires refuse to disappear, and whose pasts still have the power to reshape their futures. Writer-director Sal Bardo’s OUT OF THE WOODS is a welcome exception — an intimate, beautifully photographed drama that asks us to slow down and truly look.
Starring Frances Fisher, Mimi Kennedy, and Bruce Davison, the film follows Maxi (Fisher), a married woman in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. As her memory begins to falter, an unexpected reunion with Diana (Kennedy), a woman she once loved, awakens feelings and questions Maxi may never have fully resolved. Suddenly, the choices of her younger self take on a new and deeply personal significance.
Watch the film’s official trailer.
Frances Fisher Delivers a Raw, Captivating Performance
Fisher delivers a raw, captivating performance as Maxi confronts the frustrations of aging, the uncertainty of a changing mind, and the possibility that a past same-sex relationship was far more than a fleeting chapter of her youth. Davison brings equally welcome depth to the story as Charlie, her husband, grounding the emotional conflicts in the realities of a long marriage.
A Winter Landscape That Reflects the Weight of Time
What makes OUT OF THE WOODS particularly affecting is its visual language. Cinematographer Claudio Rietti captures a gorgeous, evocative connection between the white-haired characters and the snow-covered landscape surrounding them. The cold, the whiteness, and the stillness of winter become more than atmospheric details: they suggest the weight of time, the slowing of life, and nature itself arriving at the characters’ doorsteps. Yet beneath that wintry stillness, old feelings remain alive.
Bardo directs with a steady, unhurried hand, allowing Fisher the space to explore her character’s contradictions without sentimentality. There is a palpable affinity between filmmaker and star, a creative understanding that elevates the finished film. The result recalls the more humanistic American cinema of the late 1960s and 1970s, when intimate, character-driven stories could be both emotionally truthful and visually expressive.
This is a film that asks something of its audience: sit down, pay attention, take a deep breath, and resist the urge to rush. In a culture obsessed with youth, OUT OF THE WOODS reminds us that life’s most consequential questions — whom we have loved, the choices we have made, and what remains unfinished — do not disappear with age.
For NewFest audiences and independent-film lovers drawn to honest, mature storytelling, this is one worth seeking out.
OUT OF THE WOODS at NewFest 38
- In-person screening: Sunday, October 18, at 4:00 p.m. at SVA Theatre, Beatrice.
- Virtual screening: Available beginning Thursday, October 15, through NewFest’s virtual program.
Check the official NewFest ticketing page for tickets and virtual viewing details.
