Dissolution

A woman is forced to confront her elderly husband’s physical deterioration when they meet to sign their divorce papers.

May 20, 2025 - 08:30

How do you picture old age – something to embrace with wisdom or resist with defiance? As I settle into midlife, thoughts of those later years creep in more often, bringing with them a mix of curiosity and unease. In Dissolution, director Anthony Saxe confronts the complexities of aging head-on, offering a stark and deeply personal portrait of later life. Casting his real-life parents in the lead roles, Saxe explores themes of divorce, mortality, and emotional reckoning in a film that is as intimate as it is unflinching.

Described as a “hybrid short” blending archival home videos with newly shot footage inspired by his parents’ recent divorce and his father’s struggle with alcoholism, Dissolution is a raw, intimate, and affecting film. The short may blur the line between fact and fiction – director Anthony Saxe calls it “mostly fiction” – but its emotional core is unmistakably personal.

Premiering on Vimeo on Wednesday, May 14th, Saxe told the Staff Pick team that he knew he “wanted to keep the documentary elements by using the old tapes and casting [his] parents”, but also felt that “providing narrative structure was necessary.” He went on to say that “the idea of them playing theirselves was always more compelling to me,” as he was curious to see “how they would react to the narrative limitations of the film.”

Saxe’s parents both appear in the film, their characters reflecting their real life experiences.

That closeness to the material is what gives Dissolution its power. Casting his real-life parents in the lead roles is a bold and deeply vulnerable choice, one that pays off in the authenticity of their performances. As someone with aging parents myself, I can appreciate how challenging it must be to direct them – but that lived-in familiarity between them, their shared history and visible emotional weight, adds an undeniable richness to the film.

Despite the specifics of Saxe’s story – divorce, alcoholism, and aging – Dissolution carries a universal resonance that transcends its personal details, offering something deeply affecting no matter the viewer’s background. At its core, this is a 14-minute meditation on time; and although we only spend a short while with this couple, their shared history is palpable in every frame. In the archival footage, as Saxe’s father lovingly calls his mother a “movie actress” while filming her, that affection radiates off the screen. But in the present-day scenes, the way they look at each other reveals a different kind of love – one reshaped by years, pain, and change. It hasn’t totally vanished, but it has withered, and witnessing that quiet transformation is unexpectedly powerful and heartbreaking.