Grave Mysteries

Josh O'Connor searches for the afterlife as a sad-eyed tomb raider.

- BILGE EBIRI

ALICE ROHRWACHER'S La Chimera begins with a dream— and it’s entirely possible the dream never really ends. The film follows Arthur (Josh O’Connor), a strange man with a gift for robbing graves, for finding and lifting the knickknacks the ancient Etruscans of central Italy used to bury with their dead. “These are not meant for human eyes,” runs a refrain in the movie, and the reluctant, withdrawn former archaeologist himself might agree. Arthur seems haunted by his own exploits, and this occasionally rambling film’s queasy dream logic suggests that we’re watching a man halfway between this world and the next, struggling to find his place.