The film Life Itself, written by Dan Fogelman, manages to be both deeply unpleasant and surprisingly affecting, much like existence can be.

This film was a pleasure to experience. Occasionally, there’s a sense that it aims for breadth beyond its grasp, yet ultimately manages to convey considerable substance. My impression is that the movie isn’t quite as poor or as exceptional as some of the opinions I encountered prior to viewing. A drawback for me lies in the ambitious scope of the narrative and the weighty subjects it addresses through a complicate…

The person who created This Is Us, Dan Fogelman, wrote and directed this movie that's designed to make you cry, and it feels a lot like his television show, except with some well-known actors (Olivia Wilde, Oscar Isaac, Annette Bening, Mandy Patinkin, Antonio Banderas—wow). Just as in the series, the film moves back and forth between stories about characters whose lives are strangely linked, and these events unfold i…