Great Lines, Beautiful Lines

It's a big year for animated adaptations of graphic memoirs about losing a loved one to a horrible disease. While Tangles explored the impact of a woman's Alzheimer's diagnosis on her family, In Waves is about the way a blossoming relationship is affected by a young woman's cancer diagnosis. Despite their similar-ish origins, the movies couldn't feel more different, though they both (obviously) are extremely emotional watches.  Based on AJ Dungo's autobiographical graphic novel, In Waves is a stunner. That it's so slick and stylish speaks to the transformative power of art to make something beautiful out of something ugly and tragic. The horrible things we face in our lives can be the seeds of great art, meaningful art, art that makes you want to curl up into a ball and weep, or rush home and give your loved ones extra-tight hugs. The ability to look at your life, process it and shape it into something narratively digestible, and then to share it with the wo...