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It's not enough to say that the red Saab 900 in Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car allows for a shared space of emotional reconciliation. What unfolds is more of an examination of the differences in labor, with grief as the driving force. 'Uncle Vanya' is there as the catalyst, with a rehearsal tape as an analog outlet for our own mistakes and regrets, but it's destined to be rewound. Not to mention that the theater production exists in a multi-lingual space, with the manuscript as the foundation. Repetition in different forms. The car is 'vintage', but there's no "electrical problems", and its stability is a symbol that Kafuku and Watari utilize to explore their own inertia. The former, a theatre director, the latter, a driver, but their relationship is given further complexity by intimate nature of a car-ride. Close proximity as a form of re-evaluating your past. With a nearly forty minute prologue, Hamaguchi opens a window to the central backstory so that we can focus on the mysteries that linger unsaid. Beautiful.