Come See Me in the Good Light (2025)

Movie · 2025 · Documentary · 1h 44m · R · English

Curator score: 8.3/10 (22.7K ratings)

A love story in the face of loss.

Overview

In an intimate and joyful story of love in the face of loss, celebrated poets Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley find strength—and unexpected hilarity—in what might be their final year together.

Ratings

Director

Ryan White

Production

Tripod Media, Amplify Pictures, Something Fierce Productions

Cast

Andrea Gibson, Megan Falley, Heather Mann, Emily Clay, Bethy Leonardi, Meaux Staley-Leonardi, Jill Alldredge, Karen Raforth, Mandy Buckner, Tig Notaro

Where to watch

Apple TV Plus

Curator Review

Verdict

A moving, intimate documentary that pairs terminal illness with wit, tenderness, and queer love. It sounds especially affecting if you respond to poetry, candid relationship portraits, and films that find humor inside grief rather than outside it.

Best for

  • viewers who like emotionally direct documentaries
  • fans of queer love stories
  • people drawn to poetry and spoken-word performance
  • audiences who appreciate grief stories with warmth and humor
  • viewers seeking a cathartic cry

Skip if

  • you want a plot-driven documentary
  • you prefer observational distance over emotional intimacy
  • you avoid films centered on illness and mortality
  • you’re not in the mood for a tearjerker

Overview

Ryan White’s film appears to be built around the kind of subjects that can carry a documentary almost by sheer force of personality, and here that force is considerable. Andrea Gibson and Megan Falley bring humor, tenderness, and a startling openness to a story about living with the knowledge that time is running out.

Worth noting

What makes the film stand out is its tonal balance. It is clearly about loss, but it is not defined by despair; the joy is real, the jokes land, and the love feels lived-in rather than polished for the camera. That combination gives the film its emotional charge.

Bottom line

The documentary seems most powerful when it lets poetry do what poetry does best: name the unnameable without flattening it. If you’re receptive to intimate, character-led nonfiction and don’t mind being wrecked a little, this is likely to stay with you.

Top Letterboxd reviews

The Hound (5★) · 1107 likes

"Anybody who thinks poetry is frivolous has never needed someone to tell them something devastating, beautifully."

BrandonHabes (4★) · 865 likes

Imagine, when a human dies,the soul misses the body, actually grievesthe loss of its hands and all they could hold. Misses the throat closing shyreading out loud on the first day of school.Imagine the soul misses the stubbed toe,the loose tooth, the funny bone. The soul still asks, why does the funny bone do that? It’s just weird. Imagine the soul misses the thirsty garden cheekswatered by grief. Misses how the body could sleepthrough… more

julija (5★) · 701 likes

the sisyphus mailbox

James (Schaffrillas) (3.5★) · 545 likes

They talked about wanting to make it to 50 but they were a month short 😭

coolguytim (4★) · 496 likes

there’s more life to live when little life is left

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Topics

documentary, queer romance, poetry, terminal illness, grief, intimate portrait, emotional, hopeful, spoken word, tearjerker

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