One early pick for the most-acclaimed films of 2023 is Celine Song’s directorial debut Past Lives, which premiered at Sundance before stopping by Berlinale. Ahead of a summer release from A24, the first trailer has arrived for the triptych film starring Greta Lee, Teo Yoo, John Magaro, which follows a connection over three different periods in the lives of two characters across the world.
I said in my review from Sundance, “Whether miniscule or major, the millions of decisions we make form the winding path of our lives. Specific reasons for taking certain forks in the road can often be lost to the sea of time, swelling back up only as our memory allows. A triptych not-quite-romance crossing nearly a quarter-century, playwright Celine Song’s directorial debut Past Lives examines such universal experience with keen cultural specificity, telling the story of childhood friends who twice reconnect later in life. It’s a warm, patient film culminating in a quietly powerful, reflective finale, though its sum is greater than its parts when the first two sections register a touch underdeveloped.”
See the trailer and poster below.
Past Lives will open this summer.