Writer and director Derek Cianfrance knows what audiences might think of him. The worst things in the world happen to Cianfrance’s protagonists: Relationships fall apart; parents die; children get kidnapped. His work is almost always about love, but it’s also going to bum you the hell out.

Between his films Blue Valentine , The Place Beyond the Pines , The Light Between Oceans , and Sound of Metal and his HBO miniseries, I Know This Much Is True , he’s known for stories about fraught romances, generational trauma, and the spiritual cost of caring for another person — how trying to protect others can push us to make terrible decisions and also be the most fulfilling part of our lives. These were Cianfrance’s preoccupations for a decade, and after 2020’s I Know This Much Is True

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