We watched Grey Gardens last night and were completely transfixed–it seems most people who watch this film feel the same way.

On the surface, this film is a documentary about Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter Edie (first cousin to Jackie O.), underneath, though, it is about mothers and daughters and wealth and poverty. It’s a movie about class structure and mental health. It is about what the United States once was, what it had become, and what it continues to turn into.

Part Sunset Boulevard, part Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, when you watch this film you will find that you move from horror to humor to deep, lingering sadness and back again.