Vague Visages’ After All review contains minor spoilers. Kerstin Karlhuber’s 2025 movie features Erika Christensen, Penelope Ann Miller and Kiara Muhammad. Check out the VV home page for more film criticism, movie reviews and film essays.

Like many family films, After All succeeds with its messaging and pushes too hard with moments of poignancy. The majority of Kerstin Karlhuber’s 104-minute drama has the feel and tone of an edgy character study like To Leslie (2022), in which the the realism stays consistent throughout, and thus benefits the most crucial sequences about the human element. Unfortunately, After All drifts into Boyhood (2014) territory, as Karlhuber, working from a script by Jack Bryant, guides the audience along and signals when it’s time to feel some big emotions, rather than taking a more subtle approach with the subtext.

Set in East Texas, near the Shelby County line, After All tells a story of generational trauma and redemption. Erika Christensen portrays Ellen Sharpe, an alcoholic living in Austin who returns home and reconnects with her mother, Verna (Penelope Ann Miller), and estranged/mixed race daughter, Haley (Kiara Muhammad). The trip is especially difficult for the protagonist for several reasons. One, her mother had a stroke and needs around-the-clock help. Two, Ellen’s childhood home conjures up painful memories of her schizophrenic, racist and emotionally abusive father (David James Elliott as Walter), who ultimately took his own life. Lastly, she’s forced to think about her late brother (a soldier who died oversees) and a failed relationship with her high school sweetheart (Zach Gilford as Bobby) who split after a suicide attempt. Importantly, Christensen’s Ellen represents a gritty version of female strength and courage; she’s a woman who acknowledges past mistakes yet tries to get by the best she can. The problem, however, is that both her mother and daughter need emotional support but don’t necessarily know how to ask for it. And so After All poses this question to the audience: will Ellen overcome generational trauma or fall victim to it?

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Cinematographer Pascal Combes-Knoke gently underlines the generational trauma premise in After All through circular visuals. In short, there’s a cycle at play, one that Christensen’s Ellen can’t quite escape. And the overall atmosphere feels lived-in, as all of the main players’ believably communicate their connection to their home environment, and what it means to them in terms of the big picture. The character detail is impressive, and the motivations are indeed clear, yet Karlhuber makes a common mistake with her second feature after 2016’s Fair Haven: she doesn’t fully trust the audience’s ability to connect the dots. This is painfully evident during a second-half car scene in which Ellen guzzles booze (because she’s an alcoholic, which was established at the beginning of the film) while imagining a conversation with her late brother, who appears to the protagonist in a back seat. Unsurprisingly, the dead sibling offers poignant advice at the perfect time in Ellen’s life, which then sets up a far better and revelatory sequence featuring the mother and daughter protagonists. From my perspective, accomplished actresses like Christensen and Miller don’t need “extra” stuff (i.e. flimsy expositional material) around them to sell the central idea of a scene. Despite the awkward dead sibling sequence in After All, Karlhuber straightens her wheel during the final act and drives home each climactic sequence with directorial polish and grace.

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After All, despite leaning heavily on genre cliches, is a unique family film with its touching exploration of race and grief across three generations. Karlhuber manages the drama with care, and her only major misstep comes when she tries to further pull on the heartstrings of viewers by doubling down on the main protagonist’s painful memories and alcoholism. In a time when trauma-themed productions are steadily released across all major streaming platforms, it’s important for filmmakers and/or producers to respect the audience’s intelligence. When a family movie is mostly consistent with its overall tone, a sudden departure implies that an executive felt the need to jam in an additional scene to guide the audience along towards the emotional finish line. Is this really necessary in 2025?

After All released theatrically on October 17, 2025 and will release digitally on November 7, 2025.

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor. Thank you for reading film criticism, movie reviews and film essays at Vague Visages.

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