Conversations With Nickle

Tired of being happy? Turn that smile on the dial with this depressing downer by Lorette Bayle, documenting her friend's descent into death from Lou Gehrig's disease, made all the more depressing by the fact that the dying lady's not yet 40, and still a virgin. It opens with a shock cut from a healthy Nickle immediately post-diagnosis to the human skeleton about a month away from death that she eventually became. Having thus prepared us for what's coming, Bayle then allows us to watch the slow transition, so we can see the beauty of the healthy person echoed in the near-frightening skull at the end. It's a poignant tribute, and has been picked up by HBO, but it's hard to take in knowing how sad it's going to make you from the outset.