There are movies about grief and loss and childhood trauma... and then there's Hoard. Directed by Luna Carmoon, the pic is approximately two hours and six minutes of quiet, glittering devastation that will have you reaching for your phone to call your mom the second the credits roll. It's also gross. And I don't mean that as an insult: Carmoon even described herself as "gross, animal and carnal" when explaining how she sprayed down the sets with saliva, sweat, and blood – and told neither cast nor crew about it.
The film follows Young Maria (Lily-Beau Leach) and Older Maria (Saura Lightfoot Leon), taking place over two timelines and sometimes hazily blending them together. Little Maria lives with her mother Cynthia (Hayley Squires) in a home that is quite literally a hoarder's den – but to Maria and her mom, it's a fantastical (and stinky) world that serves as a "catalog" of their love for one another. Older Maria spends her teenage years with her foster mom Michelle (Samantha Spiro), but has never really let go of her childhood, or what her mother taught her – which includes neglecting showers. But when an older boy named Michael (Joseph Quinn) comes to stay with Michelle, everything changes – and Maria finds herself (finally) confronting the trauma of her past.
