Kudos to Elliott and DP Markus Mentzer for aspiring higher than the usual comedy mode of locking down the camera at a few unexceptional angles, then cutting for coverage on the best improv take...

| Jan 6, 2023

Over time... visual slackness proves to be a sinuous strength. It prevents the film from indicating its intentions, which would remove the mystery from the tense relationships it depicts.

| Feb 13, 2019

Clara's Ghost skillfully holds the audience in its grip, and everyone realizes how everything has been more serious all along.

| Feb 9, 2019

It's often said that going into business with family is a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea, but Clara's Ghost provides an exception to this particular rule.

| Jan 4, 2019

A twisted, slippery little whisper of a thing that refuses to let itself be easily defined.

| Dec 10, 2018

The fact that the narrative is played mostly for comedy only makes its core message - about the lure and danger of substance abuse - all the more powerful.

| Dec 7, 2018

Based on the trailer for "Clara's Ghost," I figured I would either love it or hate it, and spoiler alert: I loved it. It is delightfully weird.

| Dec 7, 2018

The family dynamics are funny and gently odd, and the film has the sort of quirky humor you'd expect from something with Chris Elliott's DNA in it.

| Original Score: B- | Dec 7, 2018

Bridey Elliott has made a slippery psychological horror-comedy that begins with family and showbiz, then slides into an empathetic journey into female hysteria.

| Dec 7, 2018

Throughout Clara's Ghost you can't help but think that you're watching a quaint home video that would appeal to the members of the subject family only.

| Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 7, 2018

You imagine that this is exactly what it's like being in Chris Elliott's family, which makes the film, by design, uncomfortable at times.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 7, 2018

The film pushes the viewer to dive deep into the tale of a fractured family. It is one of the most pleasant surprises of the year.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 6, 2018

A pleasingly odd endeavor that, if it doesn't scare you, it will at least provide some insight into how the Elliot household works.

| Original Score: B | Dec 6, 2018

Unfortunately, like most home movies, it's of precious little interest to non-relatives.

| Original Score: C- | Dec 4, 2018

Bridey Elliott avoids the smug pitfalls of narratives concerned with privileged people drinking themselves into a stupor.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 4, 2018

[Elliott's] script and direction ... create a tale that's deeply unsettling both for its lack of clarity and its characters' bent toward self-inflicting wounds.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Dec 3, 2018

Messy and abrasive, it's a difficult film to get through, but the comedy is solid and the underlying themes are well realized.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 8, 2018

The performances are strong across the board and there's a novelty to seeing the entire Elliott family act together, but too often the movie is so inward-looking and self-conscious to work as either comedy or drama.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Nov 2, 2018

In Elliott's provocative debut, it's the things that aren't tangible that become the most real and although one might check out the film expecting a cringe comedy, it's the unabashed love behind "Clara's Ghost" can be felt deeply.

| Oct 19, 2018

The vast majority of the run time is spent in the company of unlikeable characters who are neither endearing, nor funny, even if the film treats them as if they are. This is not enjoyable at all.

| Sep 19, 2018