Read @ Joe’s

SLAMDANCE ’26: Documentary Feature

Title: The LeMieurs (2025) Director: Sammy LeMieur Writer: Sammy LeMieur Studio: Boomerang Film, LLC IMDb Plot: Fearing regret and desperate to keep hold of their history, the five sons of a small-town Minnesota matriarch must reconcile her getting on in years. Meanwhile, for her three grandsons who own and operate a funeral home, death cannot be run from. Joe Says: The LeMieurs has a haunting feeling throughout that makes this documentary as compelling as it is transitory.

The stillness that follows a funeral can be a difficult weight. Tony LeMieur has died. The LeMieur family has gathered not only to mourn him and a life cut short, but to also confront their own humanity. In his intimate documentary The LeMieurs, filmmaker Sammy LeMieur turns the camera toward his own Minnesota family, capturing four years of grief, acceptance, and the emotional passing of the seasons. At its heart stands Beverly, the family matriarch in her nineties, a devout Catholic and loving presence whose gradual decline becomes the film’s emotional axis.

LeMieur frames the story through the family’s mortuary business, where death is both professional and personal. Beverly’s sons, brothers Tim, Steve, Mikey, Jim, and John share meals, cigarettes, and unvarnished conversations about their responsibility to her, as well as ultimately their, fate as they confront the blessing and curse of living a long life. The camera remains close, patient, and largely unobtrusive. There is no narration or imposed structure; instead, LeMieur favors quiet observation. The result is a near-voyeuristic experience, one that invites viewers into familial spaces that feel private yet are universally recognizable.

LeMieur’s style is deliberately spare. The film has no true set up as the mortuary cousins Seth, Kyle, and Eli prep for cousin Tony’s burial. Throughout, Sammy LeMieur keeps his shots silent, respectful. The LeMieurs has a haunting feeling throughout that makes this documentary as compelling as it is transitory. 

At times, however, Sammy LeMieur’s devotion comes at the expense of narrative cohesion as The LeMieurs occasionally deviates from its double-yellow throughline. Scenes of holidays, outdoor chores, and trivial family gatherings dilute the scenes centered on Beverly and the brothers’ reckoning with her mortality. The line between textured portraiture and home movie intimacy is a delicate one that Sammy LeMieur artistically crosses. Yet by doing so he presents an uneven balance as the plight of the morticians and the focus on their professional lives loses weight.

What does endure is Beverly’s legacy. She is vibrant, loving, and unmistakably the heart of the film. Her presence anchors the story and elevates it beyond documentation into tribute. The LeMieurs is a deeply personal work that showcases in the universality of family, faith, and farewell. In preserving Beverly’s voice and the shadow she casts in her sons’ lives, Sammy LeMieur offers both a record and a remembrance, ensuring that what passes does not disappear.

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This review – and much more – is available on Cinefied

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