Screwball romance Eternity has heavenly twist, family drama Left-Handed Girl gets it right

Eternity (M18)

114 minutes, opens on Dec 11
★★★★☆

The story: Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) has died and arrives at a posthumous terminus, where she has a week to choose either of her two late husbands for her onward journey to eternity. Will it be Larry (Miles Teller) from her second, 65-year marriage, who expired days before she did from choking on a pretzel? Or Luke (Callum Turner), who has been waiting for their reunion since his tragic end in the 1950s Korean War?

Afterlife was already a bureaucratic way station in the beloved comedy Defending Your Life (1991). “The Juncture” has become an even more dispiriting tourism expo with booths peddling a directory of final destinations from Beach World to Capitalist World. Man-Free World is regrettably sold out.

There is much to enjoy in the American fantasy love triangle Eternity, beyond the imaginative world-building of Irish director-cum-co-writer David Freyne.

Except for Luke – who, having died young, will forever be a dashing war hero played by British actor-model Turner – the characters have reverted to their 30-something selves, and the performances are ebullient.

Cranky octogenarian grandpa Larry appears in the guise of Teller, and Olsen displays the star quality and nimbleness of Hollywood’s Golden Age comediennes the likes of Carole Lombard as the overwhelmed object of affection.

The competing spouses bicker and trade schoolboy blows while she agonises over her impossible dilemma. It is a choice between her comforting lifelong connection with Larry and the excitement of youthful passion with Luke, between what-was and what-could-have-been.

Da’Vine Joy Randolph and John Early are an amusing pair of wisecracking Afterlife Coordinators advocating for her everlasting happiness, when paradise is simply being with the one you love in this unexpectedly thoughtful and moving whimsy.

Hot take: Classic screwball romance gets a heavenly revival, sweet and sincere.

Left-Handed Girl (M18)

108 minutes, available on Netflix
★★★☆☆

The story: Taiwanese single mum Shu-Fen (Janel Tsai) and her two daughters move back to Taipei from the countryside, facing familial tensions and patriarchal traditions as they rebuild their lives.

Taiwan’s submission for the 2026 Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film has landed at Netflix after a warmly received premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

Left-Handed Girl is the solo directing debut of New York-based Taiwan native Tsou Shih-ching, who has been a producing partner of American indie film-maker Sean Baker long before his 2025 Oscar success for the romance caper Anora (2024).

It is co-written, edited and produced by Baker in their continuing narratives on society’s marginalised.

Shu-Fen cannot make the rent for her night market noodle stall, having squandered what little she had on her former husband’s funeral.

Her elder girl I-Ann (recent Golden Horse Awards’ Best New Performer Ma Shih-yuan), 20, was a college hopeful, now a rebellious “betel nut beauty” slinging stimulants and sleeping with her married boss.

I-Jing (Nina Ye) is the cute six-year-old, meanwhile, scolded by her superstitious grandpa (Akio Chen) for being a leftie. Possessed by this “devil’s hand” apparently, and left unsupervised to run free, she begins shoplifting.

Her mischief is harmless. Not so the shocking family secrets subsequently spilled at grandma’s (Chao Xin-Yan) 60th birthday banquet.

The soap operatic turn is a late misstep in an intergenerational female tale of captivating naturalism shot on iPhone like Baker’s transgender comedy Tangerine (2015), such that the unruly energy of Tsou’s birth city pulsates in tandem with the characters’ tangled survival struggles.

It unfolds largely through I-Jing’s perspective. And in her wonderstruck innocence, the chaotic adult world, for all its sorrows, is but a never-ending adventure.

Hot take: A homecoming for the director, this is an intimate drama alive to its places and people.