10 Movies About Death You Need To See Before You Die

7. Imaginary Heroes

Imaginary Heroes is a contemplative piece about a teenager's life after his older brother Matt commits suicide. The film picks up as the family is recovering from his unexpected death, starting at the wake, so we the audience are trying to play catch up right off the bat. We know that this young man was a promising young athlete, perhaps even an Olympic level swimmer, so we're left wondering how this could happen? Our exposure to the death is through the eyes of his younger brother, Tim Travis, so we also experience the residual issues between the two during the mourning process. As more bits and pieces become exposed, we start to understand why Tim has such conflicted feelings about his brother's death. We're left with the impression that as much as people want to put others up on a pedestal to make difficult situations easier, sometimes there are no heroes. Despite the fact that Matt was a popular athlete, he wasn't the perfect young man that everyone thought he was. And although Tim is framed as the wounded party in the relationship, he's no angel either. This film shows that there are no easy answers, and death, just like life, is incredibly complicated.