Olivia Colman and Anthony Hopkins in Florian Zeller’s 'The Father.'
This year, several films — both narrative and documentary features from 'The Father' to 'Dick Johnson Is Dead,' as well as movies like ‘Relic’ — tackled the specific and complicated grief associated with neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's.
In the Australian horror film
Relic (IFC Films), a befuddled elderly woman starts attacking her family while her body crumbles before our eyes. Her bones snap and gouge her skin. Her flesh rots and grays, peeling off in oozing flaps. When she can no longer walk, she scuttles on her hands and knees in pursuit. She hunts her daughter (Emily Mortimer) and granddaughter (Bella Heathcote) through their pitch-dark house, unable to recognize them as she chokes and maims them. "It's not her anymore," the daughter whispers. Edna (Robyn Nevin) has become a monster.