An alcoholic goes to 30 A.A. meetings in 30 days. It's an emotional journey. | 30 Meetings/30 Days

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30 Meetings/30 Days is used with permission from Duane Andersen. Learn more at https://youtube.com/@duanemakesmovies.

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Alicia is a struggling alcoholic trying to recover and get sober. She is also a mother trying to gain more time and eventually custody of her young child. The courts have ordered her to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, and she begrudgingly commits to attending 30 meetings in 30 days.

But throughout the month-long run of meetings, Alicia embarks on an emotional rollercoaster -- one where she experiences both the optimism of getting better and the harsh reality that it might be a longer, more grueling process than she thought.

Directed and written by Duane Andersen, this powerful short drama is an incisive, compassionate look at the difficulties of getting and staying sober. Excellently written and shot with a naturalism that balances grit with grace, the narrative gains its cumulative power from the highs and lows over time, using cinema's elasticity with time to convey the journey of 30 days in a compressed format that moves briskly while still taking the time to immerse us fully in Alicia's emotions.

Sometimes tackling an expansive narrative scope in this way can sacrifice emotional richness or depth, but the film examines the difficulty of sustaining sobriety over time. Alicia's dilemma is that good intentions and choices can be easy for a day or two, or even three. But when it comes to a longer period and the natural ebbs and flows of emotion, virtuous choices can be harder to sustain.

Actor Emily Goss anchors the film with a richly realized performance, playing Alicia's ups and downs with immediacy and honesty. Whether she's in a raw, desolate place of shame or an upswing of optimism and connection, we see the difficulty of the recovery process. But above all, Alicia is a mother, and the performance keeps this primary drive alive and palpable, fueling viewers' investment in Alicia's journey and the character's desire to get and stay sober. But it isn't easy, and when Alicia almost inevitably slips up, we see just how perilous the process can be, and wonder how she will pick herself up again.

The gift of "30 Meetings/30 Days," however, is that it is honest and unvarnished about how difficult recovery is -- but also what a monumental accomplishment it is for someone to make a mistake, confront the welling of shame and self-hatred that often arises from that error in judgment and then keep moving forward. Alicia realizes that she is playing the long game when it comes staying sober -- but that it is truly day by day, meeting by meeting, that small wins build into quiet triumphs.

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An alcoholic goes to 30 A.A. meetings in 30 days. It's an emotional journey. | 30 Meetings/30 Days
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