CANDY APPLE

The scouts

The premise sounds like a greeting card until you realize the son might not be real—or Dante might not be—and suddenly you're watching something that refuses to clarify itself, which is exactly the kind of beautiful refusal most scouts would botch.

Liu situates this in the lineage of Haneke and Koreeda, where domestic interruption becomes metaphysical rupture; the formal restraint in not explaining what 'son' means is the film's most considered decision.

The entire film pivots on a single choice—whether to cut away when Lucas speaks or hold on Dante's face—and that cut, or refusal to cut, determines whether we're watching grief, delusion, or something that collapses both.