A Useful Ghost
"Ghosts are those who don't give in to death, and their return is an act of protest."
To grieve is to keep a house for someone who no longer sleeps there. A Useful Ghost is an experience that feels like a fever dream you don't want to wake from. If we can make the dead functional, do we ever truly have to say goodbye?
What makes this movie so compelling is its refusal to treat the supernatural as a weird phenomena. In this world, a ghost isn't a monster. It’s a utility. By centering a spirit trapped in a vacuum cleaner, the film creates a brilliant, hilarious metaphor for the invisible labor often expected in queer relationships just for them to be tolerated.
Yes, it might be seen funny at first but it serves as a powerful reminder of how modern beliefs demand we forget the past to fit into the present. It talks about the conflicts between tradition and progress, truly emphasizing that true resistance lies in the act of remembering what the upper class wants us to turn a blind eye to. Fuck those corrupt politicians. It’s anti-capitalist, eco-conscious, and deeply human all at once.
I can definitely say that it's undeniably ambitious. While it can feel a bit overstuffed and quite long, the visual storytelling is top-tier. It’s a messy, revolutionary piece of cinema that proves art is sometimes the only way to keep history from being erased.
Because even if we cannot see dust particles, they will always linger. Even when time splits us apart, we should never forget. Because a flicker of memory is enough to start a fire. No matter how useless an appliance might be, they will always be part of who we were. Death sucks really, just like a vacuum cleaner.