TANGLES First Teaser Reveals a Beautiful and Heartbreaking Animated Film About Alzheimer's
IFC has released the first teaser trailer for Tangles, and this looks like one of those animated movies that's going to hit audiences right in the heart. The film explores Alzheimer's, complicated family relationships, and the challenges of watching someone you love slowly lose their memories.
Set in the 1990s, the story follows Sarah, a young woman who's building a life for herself in San Francisco, where she's found love and independence. But when she returns to her conservative hometown to visit her wonderfully dysfunctional family, her life takes an unexpected turn.
Her mother, Midge, has always been a lively presence in the family, but an Alzheimer's diagnosis changes everything. Sarah suddenly finds herself navigating the emotional and often frustrating realities of caring for her mother while trying to figure out her own place in a family that isn't always easy to love.
What makes Tangles particularly moving is how it uses animation to explore such a personal and difficult subject. The film blends humor, heartbreak, and the complicated love that holds families together, even when the memories connecting them begin to disappear.
The voice cast includes Abbi Jacobson voicing Sarah and Julia Louis-Dreyfus playing Midge. They're joined by Bryan Cranston, Beanie Feldstein, Seth Rogen, and Samira Wiley.
The film marks the feature directorial debut of Canadian animation filmmaker Leah Nelson, who previously worked on animated shorts and co-founded the Vancouver-based animation studio Giant Ant, which also handled the animation for the movie.
Nelson co-wrote the screenplay with Sarah Leavitt and Trev Renney, adapting Leavitt's graphic novel, Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me. That personal connection to the material gives the film an especially meaningful foundation.
The producing team includes Louis-Dreyfus, Lauren Miller Rogen, James Weaver, Alex McAtee, Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Jen Ray, Ross Murray, Sophie Hoegh, Vicky Patel, Steve Barnett, and Alan Powell.
Early reactions praise for the film's animation and its ability to balance some painful subject matter with warmth and humor. It's an ambitious approach to storytelling, and the teaser offers a promising first look at what could be a very special animated movie.
I love seeing animation tackle stories like this. It's a medium capable of so much more than the family adventures we typically associate with it, and Tangles looks like a great example of how it can tell intimate, emotionally complex stories in creative ways.
IFC will release Tangles in select U.S. theaters on January 15, 2027, following its Cannes debut and planned awards-season rollout.