Kirsten Johnson’s Dick Johnson Is Dead is such a lovely, heartbreaking, joyous, and life-affirming meditation on life, death, family, and what it means to lose the ones you love. It’s especially captivating to see how messy and almost unformed the film is at times – you can see Johnson discovering the film, uncovering her themes and ideas, as she is making it. It’s also incredibly heartening to see how readily she engages with the ethics of making a film about the impending loss of her father while her father is still alive, yet while his is in the beginning stages of senility – even though he seems eager and ready to try anything, she never shies away from showing the moments where he is no longer able to distinguish what is real and what is part of the movie, or from showing the real pain that this exploration of death causes his close friends. Then there are the moments of pure joy, such as the recreations of heaven – complete with dancing and feathers and confetti and chocolate fountains – or the macabre death sequences deconstructed before our eyes. It all gets at some deeper truths about family, love, loss, and learning to let go.