Past Lives Film is the one right now.

There’s a moment in Past Lives when the camera lingers on a quiet street, the light soft, the air alive with the things unsaid between two people who once shared a childhood. In that pause, you feel the weight of decades, the tug of a love that isn’t quite romantic but is no less profound. It’s the kind of film that asks you to sit with its silences, to notice the flicker of emotion across Greta Lee’s face, the careful courtesy in Teo Yoo’s posture, the way John Magaro’s presence fills a room with the promise of a different future. Directed with a gentle precision by Celine Song, Past Lives does not chase easy sentiment but instead honors the complexity of longing, the strange comfort of a life chosen, and the ache of paths left unexplored. It is a reminder that cinema, at its best, doesn’t just tell us stories—it helps us feel our own lives more deeply.

When a film, like Past Lives, is viewed, it washes over one and renews a love for the film medium.  Film as emotional psychological art. Past Lives received praise and positive critique from all the usual suspects, but what they did not prepare us for was the quality of the performance and the delicate interplay between the three principal actors/characters.   Did I mention the artistic cinematography and nuanced direction, as well as the scene choices?

Past Lives tells its story over two decades, starting in Seoul with 12-year-old classmates Na Young and Hae Sung, who go on a date set up by their parents. Twelve years later, Na Young and her family have immigrated. Na Young, now going by Nora (played by the magnificent Greta Lee) is on her way to becoming a playwright in New York City. By chance, she reconnects with Hae Sung (Teo Yoo) over Facebook and Skype. Twelve years after that, Hae Sung visits Nora in New York, where she is now married to a fellow writer named Arthur (John Magaro), who is a white Jewish American. Throughout the film, the story revolves around the Korean concept of “inyun”—a notion that signifies providence or fate —and the idea that we, as people, have lines connecting us that span lifetimes. As we move through the story, we get to explore these characters separately and together, and how their connections affect all their lives.