Tangles – Screening

It’s 1999 and 20-something visual artist Sarah is partying accordingly. Recently promoted from answering the phones to illustrating the covers at the indie magazine where she works, and in a new, (potentially serious?) relationship with motorcycle-riding goddess Donimo, life is good. But when Sarah flies back east to visit her family, something feels off with her mom, Midge, and a visit to a neurologist soon upends their world as they know it.

Leah Nelson’s heartfelt debut, adapted from Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel, Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me, is a deeply loving and humorous portrait of the imperfections and foibles of an American family. The sparse pen strokes of Leavitt’s memoir transition to the screen in beautiful, mostly black-and-white, 2D animation. It’s voice cast includes Abbi Jacobson, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Bryan Cranston, Beanie Feldstein, and Seth Rogen (who also produced.)

Like life, its tone moves imperceptibly between moments of great sadness then laughter and back again (was being reduced to tears as Seth Rogen channels Chrissie Hynde on any of our 2026 Bingo cards?) But ultimately Tangles is celebration of being there and, as Midge says, sometimes having to be brave for other people.