My Dead Friend Zoe 2025 Movie Review Trailer Poster

  The solid, well-acted debut from writer-director Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, produced by Travis Kelce, serves as a heartfelt call to audiences to support returning soldiers.

“I’ve lost more men here than I did in Iraq,” a veteran testifies during one of the many group therapy sessions featured in “My Dead Friend Zoe,” Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’ moving look at mental health among former military members. Two decades of life experience and personal loss led the filmmaker to this project, which was inspired by the deaths of friends he served with during his five-year tour of duty in the U.S. Army. To be clear, most of the film is spent avoiding the kind of support veterans need, which is sort of the filmmaker’s point.

Director: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes
Writers: Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, Cherish Chen, A.J. Bermudez
Stars: Sonequa Martin-Green, Natalie Morales, Ed Harris

Its main character, U.S. Army veteran Merit (Sonequa Martin-Green), is haunted by the death of her fellow soldier Zoe (Natalie Morales), with whom she served in Afghanistan. A ghost version of Zoe haunts Merit all day, making afternoon cocktails and cracking jokes only she can hear—well, her and the audience, who should appreciate the way Zoe’s spunky attitude and irreverent sense of humor make their way into an otherwise serious movie.

This isn’t your typical ghost story. Instead, the film treats Zoe as a manifestation of Merit’s trauma: Her dead friend won’t leave her alone until she confronts her guilt, but Merit doesn’t really want Zoe to go, which is one reason she’s reluctant to accept outside help. The director has been in her shoes. He’s spent much of his post-military career doing informational campaigns about the veteran experience, which in turn inform his first feature film (the fact that Travis Kelce is listed as one of 14 executive producers has raised eyebrows, though even more significant are the hundreds of less famous names who crowdfunded this Legion M feature).

Smart and heartfelt, but never moralistic, this awareness-raising film doubles as a public service message. Don’t worry, it’s a real movie, evoking complex emotions (awkward laughter and well-deserved tears) on the way to its cathartic ending. Just know that the film exists for reasons other than escapism. Rather than being cause for skepticism, the presence of such an agenda makes the outcome all the more meaningful. Everyone involved wants the public to recognize that military service is dangerous, but so is returning home. Without proper treatment, people like Merit risk self-harm.

Civilians don’t necessarily understand the burden her character carries, which is one reason it was important to Hausmann-Stokes to cast veterans in as many roles as possible. Neither leading ladies Martin-Green and Morales, nor Ed Harris (who plays Merit’s grandfather Clay, who survived Vietnam), but virtually everyone else playing a soldier was once a soldier. That includes Morgan Freeman, a comfortingly familiar face who brings great empathy to his role as Dr. Cole, the wise, elderly counselor who oversees the group therapy sessions Merit has been court-ordered to attend. Merit is not the first veteran he’s seen who has trouble sharing her grief.

It can feel manipulative when a movie withholds a key piece of information — in this case, how and why Zoe died — until the revelation is more shocking. Here, Hausmann-Stokes punctuates Merit’s return to civilian life in Oregon with frequent flashbacks to her service: bantering with Zoe, sheltering from snipers, fending off the advances of male soldiers, listening to pop songs on a broken iPod (the lyrics to “Umbrella” have rarely been more poignant: “When the war has taken its share… I said I’ll always be your friend.”)

As edited, these interruptions can be jarring and inelegant, but that seems true to the experience of trauma. Merit can’t control how or when Zoe’s memories surprise her. Morales, as vivacious as a dead person can be, practically steals the show at times as Zoe. But there comes a point when she starts to become a problem, getting in the way of Merit’s responsibilities and interrupting a budding romance with a friendly, if slightly clueless, civilian (Utkarsh Ambudkar).

Lately, Merit has been off work due to an accident that may have been more than mere negligence, according to Dr. Cole. He is patient with her, but also strict. He won't sign her papers unless she participates. When Merit starts skipping her stress therapy, he is forced to stop.

Watch My Dead Friend Zoe 2025 Movie Trailer