Amy Seimetz's Mirror Worlds

In her new absurdist thriller, She Dies Tomorrow, the director-actress dares to think the unthinkable.

- By Matt Zoller Seitz

SHE DIES TOMORROW is available on demand on August 7.

AMY SEIMETZ is laughing. The laughter is always triggered by things one might not normally laugh about, from the ravages of illness to the catastrophes of the pandemic. It ranges from a wry chuckle to a full-on roar, her head thrown back. This happens countless times as we talk about She Dies Tomorrow, the 38-year-old director-actress’s third feature. The movie is about a woman named Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil) who has a breakdown over the prospect of her impending death. At least it seems impending: It’s never explained why, exactly, Amy is convinced she’ll be gone before the next sunset. We just observe her as she melts down in her house (which also happens to be Seimetz’s home in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles). Then, over the course of the next few hours, she transmits her fear of oblivion to others, including her friend (Jane Adams), her caring but exasperated brother (Chris Messina), and his self- centered wife (Katie Aselton), who is having a birthday party and berates Amy for being a bummer.

“Death is the cruelest joke, you know?,” Seimetz tells me from her living room. That the set of She Dies Tomorrow serves as the backdrop to our conversation adds one more plane to the hall of mirrors. “You’re born, you’re conscious, and, the entire time, the trick is to deny the inevitable.”