Working in construction/street repair and coal may not be the glamorous of 9 to 5 jobs. So kudos to these two films for generating high drama with lead characters who do precisely that. 

Ghostlight - A film that was an audience favorite at the 2024 Sundance, here’s a drama about little people, but knows how to be resonant and linger in the audience’s mind. It’s smart, touching, and beautifully rendered. Dan (Keith Kupferer) works in a Chicago-based blue-collar company that repairs city roads, and he’s also the father of Daisy (Katherine Kupferer), who’s a handful at school, getting expelled and nominated for regular therapy due to her deep anger issues. While working on a Windy City street, Dan is approached by Rita (Dolly de Leon), who helps run a neighborhood theater group. The noise from his work seems to distract them from their rehearsing. One thing leads to another, and when Dan blows up over a motorist who nearly runs him over, Rita, who was watching, calls him to audition for a part in the Romeo and Juliet that they’re staging. 

What this film very successfully portrays is the healing power of Art and how getting involved in this tragedy and dramatic vehicle impacts Dan’s life and his relationship with his daughter and wife in ways he could not begin to imagine. Some out there may be cold-hearted and will find the film too schmaltzy and overly sentimental. Others will ignore the movie as they’re all relative unknowns in the main cast. To those people, I can only say that snubbing the film will be no big loss in the scheme of things, but you will have missed out on a movie that knows its place, takes assured steps, and is impactful while still restrained and modulated. To accomplish all that takes a certain kind of cinema magic, kudos to the two directors, Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson, for making this film so relatable and appealing. Come for Dolly, but be amazed at the performances of the Kupferers (real-life family playing father, mother, and daughter). 

Small Things Like These - Based on the Booker-nominated novel of Clare Keegan from four years ago, the book was described as a modern-day Dickens, set in Ireland in the mid-1980s. What’s interesting to note is that after a big-budget film like Oppenheimer, this is the small Indie film that Cillian Murphy wanted to star in and co-produce. Tim Mielants directs, with Enda Walsh handling the adaptation, and it’s a film that turned heads in Berlin in 2024. Cillian plays Bill Furlong, a simple family man who delivers coal to different homes and institutions as a business. He does it daily, as all establishments need coal for their heating requirements, especially during the winter. During his rounds, we’re introduced to the convent, and the head nun there is Sister Mary (Emily Watson). While functioning as a school, the nunnery is also a ‘home’ for pregnant, single girls.

Known as Magdalene Laundries (the Magdalene referring to fallen women), Bill discovers that some of the girls are being held there against their will, and their babies are taken away from them, presumably to be ‘sold.’ To earn their keep while waiting to give birth, these single girls do menial labor that includes laundry service, and they’re often subjected to physical hardships and punishment. Bill’s discovery becomes extra resonant to him, as Bill was born to a single mother and was lucky to have his mother working for a rich woman who made Bill something of a ward after his Mom suddenly passed when Bill was only ten. The film is about making decisions, discerning right from wrong, and taking a stand, even when everyone is saying to turn a blind eye and not upset those that have power and say within the community. That Bill’s daughters are at the nuns’ school complicates matters.