When a movie is truly working for you, there's nothing else like it. Movies have the ability to transport you to another world, and for a few short hours, life doesn't matter, your problems don't matter...all you can think about is living in said world.

Hamaguchi's DRIVE MY CAR is one such film for me. For 3 hours, I completely lost myself in the life of Kafuku-san. I wanted to live with him, hurt with him, experience with him. I learned to love his car just like he does, and I could've spent even more time with him. Not every movie can sustain 180 minutes, but DRIVE MY CAR does it and then some, leaving me wanting more.

There's a lot of more spoiler-y thoughts in my head, but I'll just leave it at this: I found the message of this film deeply impactful. We can never truly know each other...we can only know ourselves. And when someone special passes away, leaves us with more questions than answers, all we can do is live each day. We can't run from our grief...we have to learn to live with it as a burden. But that is the price we pay for caring about each other. And in the end....it's worth it.