Debut filmmaker and Army paratrooper Kyle Hausmann-Stokes tells IndieWire how he assembled a cast of almost entirely former military performers and believes veteran storylines are often misrepresented.

“My Dead Friend Zoe” is an ode to friendship and an intense dive into the world of grief; it also depicts the true-life struggles of veterans once they leave the service. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 24% of women and 14% of men who use VA Health Care were diagnosed with PTSD.

The scenes Martin-Green shares with Harris, of the "suck-it-up" school of processing grief, and Morales, irreverent and irresistible as Zoe's livewire ghost, spark with an energy that also underlines how easy it is to leave the mental challenges of returning soldiers unaddressed.

My Dead Friend Zoe,” starring Natalie Morales and Sonequa Martin-Green, confronts a dark reality of post-combat struggle with as much humor and playfulness as it does trauma and sorrow.

No, “My Dead Friend Zoe” is not the latest teen zombie comedy, no matter what the title sounds like. Instead, and somewhat surprisingly, it’s a heartfelt, empathetic drama about post-traumatic stress disorder in the United States military and,

“My Dead Friend Zoe” is based on an idea that sounds like it wouldn’t work: It’s a buddy comedy about PTSD. Lean too far in one direction and the movie ends up being empty and flippant; veer too far in the other and it becomes dreary and heavy-handed.

Sonequa Martin-Green plays a traumatized Afghanistan War vet who is still hearing from a deceased comrade in Kyle Hausmann-Stokes’s dark comedy.

I’m not sure how much attention to ascribe to this, but given that Zoe is Greek for “life,” the title of “My Dead Friend Zoe” feels a bit wry. Directed by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes from a screenplay he wrote with A.

A comic drama from producer #TravisKelce and a dark comic crime flick are both new this week, featuring #SonequaMartinGreen, #NatalieMorales, #MorganFreeman, #EdHarris, #BillMurray, #PeteDavidson, #JenniferCollidge,