Mouse (2026) – Finding Room to Grow in the Wake of Loss

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“Mouse” Film Details

• Director(s): Kelly O’Sullivan, Alex Thompson
• Writer(s): Kelly O’Sullivan
• Runtime: 2 Hour(s)
• Film Festival – NewFest 2026 [More Coverage Of The 2026 Film Festival]): October 18, 2026
• In Theaters: November 13, 2026
• Genre(s): Drama, Historical (2000s)
• Cultural Context or Representation: LGBT+
• Content Rating: Rated R

Movie Summary

It’s 2002 in North Little Rock, Arkansas, and the end of junior year. Callie had big plans. Her mom, Helen, a classically trained pianist, dedicated her life to Callie, and Callie planned to take that foundation to Juilliard, Broadway, and have a big life. But then she died.

Left behind is Helen, who devoted so much of herself to Callie, and is left with grief and the memories of the future they imagined together. A best friend, Minnie, who lost both the person who understood her and, in many ways, defined her. And ultimately, a community with the push and pull of recognizing a tragedy while accepting that life goes on.

Cast and Characters

• Callie (Chloe Coleman)
• Helen (Sophie Okonedo)
• Minnie (Katherine Mallen Kupferer)
• Barbara (Tara Mallen)
• Kat (Iman Vellani)

Review and Commentary

Who Is This For?

Those who like coming-of-age dramas that explore complicated feelings about grief and how people process it.

Highlight(s)

Helen’s Push For Barbara To Be Understood By Minnie [84/100]

After Callie’s death, Minnie is one of the few people who is comfortable with Helen’s grief. This comforts Helen, and because she lives in a better house and cooks, Minnie latches onto her. However, a complication arises when both Helen and Minnie take advantage of each other’s company.

But because Helen is an adult, as much as she enjoys having a surrogate daughter, she knows that, even though Minnie has been close to Callie for years, she is taking moments from Minnie’s mom, Barbara. In some ways, the guilt we see Helen process from stealing moments from Barbara adds to her grief.

You can see Minnie may love her mom but doesn’t like her living situation, and she wants some of what Callie had. And for Helen, you can see that she is processing that her daughter is dead; there will be no senior prom moment, watching her graduate, hearing about her first kiss, love, heartbreak, so Minnie sharing some of those moments with her, Helen? It’s heartbreaking to see and know Helen won’t get that with Callie, and that Barbara is missing moments that should be hers.

Now, note that there comes a point when Helen questions whether she maybe let this go too far. But the brilliance is that it is hard to be sure whether Helen has had enough, whether she bit off more than she could chew with Minnie, or whether she truly wants Minnie to give her mom these precious moments. Mainly so Barbara doesn’t feel the devastating kind of rejection which comes from a daughter who is alive, but prefers another to fill your role, and borderline disowns your connection.

The Complicated Feelings Which Come From Breaking Out Of Someone’s Shadow [83/100]

The way Callie is shown and described, she was the star of the town. Everyone knew her; many of her peers thought they were her best friend, and many felt stuck in her shadow. Helen, while she built Callie’s artistic foundation, sacrificed her own career so her daughter could shine. Minnie may not have had a clear talent for music, but her life was defined by her role as Callie’s friend.

As you can imagine, suddenly being thrust into the light after being in someone’s shadow is daunting. For Helen, it means the spotlight of being the mother who lost their child, and becoming a social pariah for something that isn’t even your fault. Then for Minnie, there is the question of what to do with this attention? What has she been holding herself back from because the spotlight was on Callie?

You can see both feel challenged trying to navigate this. Helen, as noted above, found that, at times, this situation helped her get to know Minnie, who she sometimes wishes Callie were more like. But Minnie is not Callie. Then, for Minnie, it means that, without having this living, direct comparison, which defined her existence, this was the time to explore what she was capable of. Maybe a good time to see, before she gets trapped in the checklist of adulthood, whether there are other paths for her to take.

Heck, even in terms of dating, there is a need to question: did Minnie ever see herself as a viable choice when next to Callie? Because her first opportunity doesn’t come until Callie is gone. This leaves both Helen and Minnie having to navigate the guilt of missed opportunities. Helen is stealing from Barbara, and Minnie almost takes back what she may have felt was stolen or delayed because of Callie.

Kat [82/100]

What I love about Kat is that, as Minnie’s love interest, you don’t get that usual sapphic dynamic when one person is effortlessly cool and the other is awkward or a wallflower. Both Minnie and Kat are awkward and dealing with separate grief, but Kat’s humor makes her charming. Never enough to be an extrovert, but the kind that you can see for Minnie makes for a good first, real crush.

I would even say Kat is presented as a more positive part of Minnie’s life than Callie, mainly because we see Callie on screen for so little time.

On The Fence

Not Getting Enough Time With Callie [73/100]

One problem we consistently have with movies like Mouse is that they are built around the loss of a character you don’t get a three-dimensional view of. Most of what you know is told to you by those who are alive, making it so you need a medium to feel like you know anything about the dead. Do we see some minor things while Callie is alive, like that she isn’t the best at school and some girls are jealous of her? Yes.

However, because her death is so sudden, and once it happens, the character is written off, as a viewer, it didn’t feel like there was much, if anything, to mourn. Compared to the recently released Love Of Your Life, where you spend a notable amount of time seeing the highs and lows of the character who passes, their relationships, and times when they aren’t lovable or likable, Mouse can feel like they underutilized Callie and, by extension, what Chloe Coleman could have brought to the character.

Overall

Our Rating (80/100): Positive (Worth Seeing)

Mouse understands grief, and the actors certainly know how to depict it. However, I found it difficult to join them in that grief because the person who died never felt alive to me. They were a big personality, so big that some felt small in their presence, even when Callie experienced moments of doubt. But, what little we get of Callie doesn’t feel like enough to truly understand her impact, even as we see what her mom and best friend go through.

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