A Banquet

Beautiful cinematography . Excellent story about mental illness. Good setting and healthy vibe about food, nutrition and how fragile life can be about raising children and teenagers in general as a single parent.

Unsettling and vivid portrayal of the desperation of a parent terrified at the suffering of a child.

many don't know it's a comedy

If you read about religious mysticism, you realize that for every spiritual prodigy, dozens of others must have been repressed, exorcized or institutionalized. Much has written about holy fools in folklore, legend and sacred texts. Some inspire religious followings. Others, like Jim Jones, Jan of Leyden, or Hong Xiuquan, inspire violence and mass suicide. Some are canonized, because their fame and/or writings endure. All I can say is, I believe some people really do serve a divine purpose with their visions and feats. Others are clearly misled and lead their disciples to destruction. We may think of them as a source of amusement for diabolical forces. Some are just plain mad. Yet we wonder how many spiritually sensitive people are locked away, or heavily medicated, because no one was willing to listen to or appreciate them. This movie, I think, hinted at this quandary. What if the lunatic is really a prophet? Would we recognize a true voice of warning with so many crying "Wolf!"? The character of Bets would be at home in Medieval Europe or among a tribal people relatively uncorrupted by Western thought.

I'm very relieved for the large number of reviewers who didn't get the movie because they clearly had happy childhoods with parents who were not emotionally abusive. Honestly, good for you! For the rest of us this movie is a horrific and poetic rendering of real and complicated mother/daughter dynamics.