Come See Me in the Good Light
The non-binary poet Andrea Gibson shares their last days with the camera in Ryan White’s devastatingly intimate, humanist documentary.
Cinematic poetry: Megan Falley and Andrea Gibson
Image courtesy of Dogwoof.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
An awkward child who never seemed to fit a prescribed model, the non-binary Andrea Gibson says that at the outset of her adult life it was spoken-word poetry that saved her. Then, in 2023, she was appointed the Poet Laureate of Colorado and her words – words that addressed gender norms, love, identity and mortality – bonded her to an audience that she never knew existed. But more than anything it was Megan Falley, her poetry editor, who saved her, who befriended her, who married her.
Ryan White’s astonishingly moving documentary doesn’t feel like a documentary, other than Andrea and Megan play themselves at the centre of the drama. And there is drama aplenty. Ryan White’s camera, with its penetrating close-ups and reaction shots, is, it seems, always there for every key moment, up to the point when Andrea reads the email that is to sound the death knell to, well, everything…
Nothing, it seems, is off the table, as Andrea and Meg discuss their early sexual overtures, their disagreements, their most personal embarrassments and insecurities and Andrea’s ailing body, wracked with cancer. They are about as close as a couple can get and Andrea, aware that her days are numbered from the outset of the film, reveals that, “if I die, Meg is really going to need me to support her.”
Andrea Gibson has a way with words, even though she admits that her vocabulary is limited, compared to Meg’s more extensive lexicon (bandying around adjectives like ‘octopodal’). But Andrea Gibson never seems happier than when addressing an audience, a fanbase that greets her like a rock star. So when she starts to lose her voice in her late forties, Andrea’s end feels preordained. And still the camera is there, observing her in her dressing room, in the car, in bed, in the bath, in the shower…
For a film about dying, Come See Me in the Good Light is so full of life that it is life-enhancing. As Andrea talks of learning to say goodbye to our bodies, she suggests to our invisible director that his film should start with her reading her poem, ‘Life Anthem’: “I couldn’t feel my hands – they’d gone numb from trying to hold on to everyone I had ever loved…” The power of Ryan White’s film is that it doesn’t dictate, nor does it preach, it just takes us into the inner sanctum of Andrea and Meg’s most private world as they hug, cry, laugh and muse about the larger implications of life and the world beyond. For documentary filmmaking, Come See Me… takes intimacy to a whole new level. When Andrea rejoices that she’s been given another three weeks to live, her elation really does feel life-changing.
Featuring Andrea Gibson, Megan Falley, Heather Mann, Emily Clay, Meaux Leonardi, Jill Alldredge, Karen Raforth, Mandy Buckner, Stef Willen, Tig Notaro.
Dir Ryan White, Pro Jessica Hargrave, Ryan White, Tig Notaro and Stef Willen, Ex Pro Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambach, Lauren Haber, Joe Lewis, Rachel Eggebeen, Colin King Miller, Catherine Carlile, Brandi Carlile, Susan Yeagley, Kevin Nealon, Galia Gichon, Sara Bareilles, Amanda Doyle, Christi Offutt and Soraida Bedoya, Screenplay Ryan White, Ph Brandon Somerhalder, Ed Berenice Chávez, Music Blake Neely.
Amplify Pictures/Tripod Media-Dogwoof.
104 mins. USA. 2025. UK and US Rel: 14 November 2025. Cert. 15.
