My Thoughts on Lilly Lives Alone
Lilly Lives Alone is a story centered almost entirely on a single character and location, and that kind of setup can either feel incredibly intimate or suffocating depending on how it is done..
Shannon Beeby plays Lilly, a woman still trapped in grief ten years after the death of her young daughter, and the film opens with a short, cryptic narration, which didn’t immediately make sense to me, but it did establish that Lilly is haunted, not just by loss, but by something larger, something she can’t quite articulate.
The story then quickly drops us into her life the morning after a one-night stand with Jed, played by Ryan Jonze. Jed seems eager to see her again, but Lilly is distant and preoccupied, weighed down by her unresolved pain.
As said, this is 95% a single location film, with just Lilly pretty much in her house, where there are strange noises, odd visions, and two elderly men who linger outside her home, who she becomes convinced are connected to whatever is happening.
Beeby has to carry the film on her own shoulders, and she does it competently, but the script doesn’t give her much to expand on, as you watch her wander from room to room, crying or talking to herself, which can feel almost hypnotic at times, but also quite exhausting.
A lot of the film is visually quite interesting, though, and there are images of a child in a womb and other surreal sequences that makes you consider what the filmmakers were trying to express, as I wasn’t always sure whether I was seeing literal events or Lilly’s imagination running wild.
But I also found it frustrating, as while I like movies that keep me guessing, I do need some sort of anchor, some thread I can hold onto, and Lilly Lives Alone often left me floating in a space of confusion.
The few jump scares that do appear rely mostly on sudden loud sounds, which I personally didn’t find effective as I’m not a fan of cheap scares, and I think the pacing of the film definitely won't be for everyone either, as while it is deliberate, it is not always in a way that serves the story.
Lilly’s mourning, her drinking, and her moments of paranoia repeat in cycles that feel longer than necessary, and while I understand the intention, as it’s meant to immerse us in her state of mind, but by the middle of the film, I felt more frustrated than absorbed.
I was waiting for the story to really pull me somewhere, and to make me care about the outcome beyond watching Lilly drift through her days, but it didn't really ever do that, which is a shame, but there’s something to be said for a film that doesn’t spoon feed you, and I always appreciate the attempt to create something haunting through mood, isolation, and performance rather than spectacle.
But for that to work, you really need the emotional weight to land, and in Lilly Lives Alone, you are watching a study of grief, a common horror theme these days, but here you can only empathize in a surface level way, as the story doesn't pull you deeply enough into Lilly’s world.
And while Lilly Lives Alone isn’t a terrible movie if you're into these kind of movies, and there are definitely moments that show flashes of genuine creativity and visual interest, the long stretches of melancholy can and probably will feel monotonous for many.
I found myself appreciating what the filmmakers were trying to do while simultaneously wishing they had been bolder with the story, and in the end, while it might appeal to some, it also leaves more more frustration than engagement.