There might need to be a content warning on Leah Nelson’s beautiful and heartfelt film that if you have experienced the loss of a parent, particularly to old age or long illness, it might make you cry.

It is lovely that this is a queer story where queerness isn’t the struggle or conflict. Sarah (Abbi Jacobson) is a young lesbian comic writer, who is fully accepted by her rather fabulous parents. They are Midge (Julia Louis Dreyfus) and Rob (Bryan Cranston), although her relationship with her sister Hannah (Beanie Feldstein) is not quite so smooth.

Sarah comes home for a visit from very exciting San Francisco to rather boring small town Maine. She is immediately aware that something is not quite right with her mother. Always a powerhouse, she has recently lost her job and is forgetful and easily irritated.

And so begins the struggle of any child when a family member is diagnosed with a form of dementia. It is a chaotic re-ordering of your life and your relationships with your family. For how do you process the slow change to a person who was always your role model and protector?

Based on the graphic novel by Sarah Leavitt, the beautiful black-and-white illustrations perfectly capture the differences between city and country, light and shade and the spiky dynamics of this family. It sounds like such a heavy topic but there is a lot of lightness and humour in the way the story is told. Sarah as the central character is easy to empathise with, even when she is being a bit of a brat or pushing her worries on to others.

There is a joyful representation of the queer community, and there is never a sense that this is a world that does anything but contribute positively to Sarah and her family.

I sat with my mother as she was dying and so there is something here that had me sobbing. They were a cathartic kind of tears though, as this experience is framed in strength of character, resilience, and family cohesion.

There are lots of famous names in the closing credits who provided voices – Seth Rogen, Wanda Sykes, Sarah Silverman, Bowen Yang – and I wasn’t conscious of it at the time but their voices give a real, almost rough, authenticity to the characters you are watching.

I sadly missed the much talked about end credits (I had to run to my next film) where many cast and crew added a dedication to someone they knew affected by dementia. And I can’t help but give a film like this 5 stars, particularly with the beautiful black and white imagery.