If Charlie Kaufman did things the expected way he wouldn’t be Charlie Kaufman. HOW TO SHOOT A GHOST (2025) was the sixth directorial effort by this famously quirky screenwriter, who can always be counted on for the unconventional and idiosyncratic. Scripted by Eva H.D. (whose previous writing credit JACKALS & FIREFLIES was also directed by Kaufman), this 27 minute film strongly embodies both those adjectives. It’s not the masterpiece many have been proclaiming it, but no Kaufman project is entirely without interest, especially one starring Academy Award winner Jessie Buckley.
HOW TO SHOOT A GHOST (2025) Trailer
Lensed in Athens, the film is narrated in wistful tones by Eva H.D., who begins with the observation “Before they were ghosts they were people in the city. They met on the day after the last day of their lives.” Retab (Josef Akiki) is a hipster translator and Anthi (Buckley) a blue haired photographer who compulsively takes pictures of people and landscapes—and, in voice-overs that compete with Eva H.D.’s narration, proclaims “I spent my life being ignored by everything I loved. I can’t spend my death that way.”
Jessie Buckley
This ghostly couple spends a day wandering a city “filled with ghosts, those who could not let it go,” with scenery that more often than not takes center stage. (Spoiler Alert!) Eventually Retab (in an apparent flashback) drowns himself in the ocean while Anthi dispassionately watches from the shore—and then disappears.
The film’s visual aesthetic, depicted via wide angle lenses, soft focus and copious dissolves, is announced by the opening Tony Morrison epigraph: “At some point in life the world’s beauty becomes enough. You don’t need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough.”
Joseph Akiki, Jessie Buckley
Gone is the darky comedic air that until now has defined Charlie Kaufman’s work, replaced by an ominous and elegiac tone that seems appropriate to a film about ghosts. As photographed by Michal Dymek, it often feels more like an arty travelogue than a proper narrative—or, more accurately, a mood piece. It’s certainly not an acting showcase, although Jessie Buckley and Joseph Akiki both acquit themselves well.
The highly ambient score by Ella van der Woude accentuates the otherworldly air. So too does a haunting cover of Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” by Martha and Rufus Wainwright that quite memorably underscores the end credits.
PERFECT DAY by Martha and Rufus Wainwright
Vital Statistics
HOW TO SHOOT A GHOST
Unmade/Kanopy/Mighty Engine
Director: Charlie Kaufman
Producers: Isabelle DeLuce, Emily McCann Lesser
Screenplay: Eva H.D.
Cinematography: Michal Dymek
Editing: Robert Frazen, Jon Daniel
Cast: Jessie Buckley, Josef Akiki, Eva H.D., Felis Topi, Myrto Makridi, Athanasia Kourtaki, Argyris Pandazaras, Tania Khoja Oghlabanian, Gianni Karagi