Mary Goes Round

Molly McGlynn's feature debut isn't just a smart and touching film about the ways we cope with tragedy, it's also a darkly comic look at failure. Mary is an addiction counselor whose whole world comes crashing down when she (ironically enough) gets a DUI. Not surprisingly, she loses her job, loses her boyfriend, and realizes her tenuous binge-and-lie lifestyle just isn’t going to cut it anymore. With nothing left she decides it’s time to answer the pleas of her estranged father, moving back home to Niagara Falls to finally meet the half sister she’s never known. Aya Cash (FX's You’re the Worst) delivers a top-notch performance as Mary, who slowly discovers that it might just be in helping others that she can finally start to help herself. Loosely based on McGlynn’s own family, the film perfectly balances dark and light, delivering a poignant coming of age story about healing irreparable wounds, and learning that sometimes “it’s okay for things not to be okay.”