Wristcutters - The Best Movie No One Bothered to Tell Me About

Wristcutters: A Love Story
*****

I really loved this movie.
You might not.
But I really, really loved it.
More of a charming fantasy than anything else, Wristcutters follows Zia, who after committing suicide, finds himself in a parallel world. It's practically the same world he just left, except this one happens to be inhabited only by other suicide victims. As he notes, it's the perfect punishment.

With nowhere left to go, he becomes accustomed to his lifestyle. This world has certain rules. For example, there's no smiling. That doesn't mean people can't have fun, but it serves as a constant reminder. Further, suicide falls under a certain kind of theological gray area. So the world isn't perfect. As in the case of Zia's friend Eugene, who apparently has a black hole underneath his passenger seat. Or the inexplicable tendency for some people to unwittingly perform miracles.

Besides the obvious, everything is fine until Zia finds out his ex-girlfriend has recently offed herself in Zia's wake. It becomes his mission to find her.

Of course, there are countless comparisons we can make between this film and others before it. Death and the afterlife have been tackled before in movies. Most notably of course, the opus of Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey.
Let us give that film a moment of respectful silence.
So we're not strangers to the concept. But Wristcutters is refreshingly low-key, even down to earth. The only special effects are minimal, sparse, and somehow charmingly dated. What the film thrives on is it's characters.
The concept itself is a brilliant catalyst for this. With a world populated by suicide victims, everyone, even those in the background, have a story. Everyone is there for a very specific reason, often a painfully private one. But in a world free of the burden of hiding this secret pain, there is a strange sense of freedom.

Wristcutters has it's flaws, but I like that. It's not perfect, but it's affective. It's touching, funny, and endearing.
I highly recommend watching it.