My Dead Friend Zoe

This is a movie with a powerful message worth telling, but it’s a bit of a mess getting there. Some great acting from the leads and a solid ending carry it to a solid rating and worth a watch.

Abit one dimensional, wanted to see more about how their relationship broke down after coming back to the states.

Unfortunate timing in that I watched this just as the US Govt had dismantled so many services for it's returned services

It's not a comedy, its a drama about the struggle of returning to civilian life

ONE STAR
- be prepared to stay at least past 40 minutes. i wouldn't know about the rest; i left
- Meets: The Sixth Sense (1999) meets Jarhead (2005)—except this ghost won’t shut up, and the message gets lost in the noise.

Disclaimer: I Executed a Tactical Retreat
• I didn’t make it to the end. Around the 40-minute mark, I hit my limit and withdrew.
• Maybe the film found its footing later. Maybe Ed Harris’ character became relevant. Maybe the story pulled itself together. I wouldn’t know.
• What I do know? For the first 40 minutes, this was a confused, frustrating mess.

Bad Timing Meets a Frustrating Execution
• A film about the struggles of Black soldiers in the military… released just as the Orange Cheeto fires the Black Chairman of the Joint Chiefs for supporting DEI.
• Maybe it’s exactly the right time for this story. But instead of hitting with urgency, it just felt like salt in the wound.

A Disjointed, Messy Narrative (At Least for the First 40 Minutes)
• Protagonist haunted by her former squad mate, Zoe. Zoe is in every scene, delivering a running commentary that is neither funny nor insightful. Just… weird.
• Ed Harris as the protagonist’s grandfather—early Alzheimer’s, wandering aimlessly through the plot, adding nothing. Maybe he became relevant later, but in the first 40 minutes? No.
• Morgan Freeman? Wasted. Refusing to sign a court-ordered treatment form for the protagonist, repeating the same scene over and over.

A Movie About PTSD That Forgets Its Own Message
• PTSD is a critical issue, but this film does it no favors.
• A frustrating mix of “I hear voices” supernatural gimmicks and clunky storytelling.
• The result? An incoherent jumble of military trauma, bureaucracy, and ghostly quips.

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Crafted with Hudson—your AI concierge, cinematic executioner, and escape strategist for premature film exits.