My Dead Friend Zoe

Filmmaker Kyle Hausmann-Stokes impresses with his feature debut, My Dead Friend Zoe. Based on his 2022 short Merit x Zoe, the film follows Army veteran Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green, Star Trek: Discovery) as she tries to overcome some post-Afghanistan trauma.

Merit’s best friend Zoe (Natalie Morales)—who is, as you might surmise from the title, dead—isn’t making recovery easy. A constant companion (at therapy, on dates, etc.), Zoe— as well as Merit’s noticeable interactions with the invisible friend—is a big part of Merit’s problem.

But therapy will have to hang on because Merit’s hero, Vietnam Veteran grandpa (Ed Harris), has early onset Alzheimer’s and Merit (with Zoe in tow) needs to get to the family lake house and figure things out.

While the title and premise may sound a tad flippant, My Dead Friend Zoe turns out to be a rewarding and earnest drama. Morales delivers a boldly funny and equally vulnerable turn, and Utkarsh Ambudkar injects the film with charming, self-deprecating humor. But the levity tends to enrich the film’s truly human quality rather than distract from its underlying tensions.

Hausman-Stokes’s patient direction and unsentimental script, co-written with Cherish Chen and A.J. Bermudez, slowly uncover Merit’s trauma, which gives the unfolding family drama the attention and respect it needs.

Martin-Green’s stoic performance is offset by well-timed flashbacks to the friendship during active duty. So often in other films, this structure feels cliché and formulaic, as the look back teases a dark episode that the frivolity is meant to contrast with. Instead, Hausman-Stokes and his remarkable cast clarify the joyous bond the two women shared, deepening the sense of loss that is now drowning Merit.

We’ve seen plenty of solid dramas depicting struggles facing veterans, Megan Leavey, Thank You for Your Service, American Sniper, and the masterpiece Leave No Trace among them. The commonality My Best Friend Zoe shares with these films is the profound need for the veteran services currently on the DOGE chopping block. While My Dead Friend Zoe’s delightful and moving buddy picture vibe carves a different direction than the others took, the message is even more urgent.