Review: Grief leads to unlikely friendships and evasions in the compassionate 'Mouse'

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Set us as preferred Little Rock, Ark., 2002.Minnie (Katherine Mallen Kupferer) and Callie (Chloe Coleman) drive to their last day of junior year, Callie behind the wheel, windows down, scream-singing to “All You Wanted” by Michelle Branch: “If you want to, I can save you.

I can take you away from here.”It’s a familiar teenage moment that arrives early in “Mouse,” the third collaboration from filmmaking partners Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson.The song is a nostalgia hit for the elder millennials in the room, and it crystallizes this moment in time in the early 2000s, girls on the cusp of adulthood.

But the song becomes a touchstone that shifts meaning throughout “Mouse.” In this scene, the song represents liberation, friendship, joy.Then it becomes a reminder of loss, then a warning sign.

For better or for worse, it’s forever tied to Callie and her free, self-possessed spirit.Writer O’Sullivan mines her own teenage past for “Mouse,” and the film is too perfectly specific to that time period to be made by anyone who didn’t live it.Co-directors and life partners O’Sullivan and Thompson conjure 2002 with key needle drops (see also: Nelly’s “Hot in Herre” and Shaggy’s “Angel,” deployed with laser-like accuracy) and a warm, grainy aesthetic, every frame like an old disposable camera snap.But what they convey with “Mouse” is far more profound than mere throwback Y2K style.

The story here is about the strange relationships that form in the wake of devastating loss, and an examination of the unpredictable, messy and confusing connections often found between people experiencing grief.Movies From a new “Resident Evil” reboot from the director of “Weapons” to Oscar contenders starring Mikey Madison and Tom Cruise, here are the movies we’ll be at this fall.Coleman’s Callie...