EO (2022) review

A donkey named EO, who performs in the circus with his beloved trainer and friend Kasandra (Sandra Drzymalska), is separated from her when the authorities close it down for animal cruelty, and then proceeds to change hands, escapes from a small farm, parties with a soccer team, gets beaten (and cured) and winds up with several truck drivers and a disgraced Italian priest.  Generally speaking, I wouldn't recommend anyone try to ever 'copy' Bresson, but Skolimowski's been around quite a while (he's 84 years old) and does a nice job with this 'modernization' of 1966's Au Hasard Balthazar: he truly has empathy for his non-verbal lead (as well as the other animals) and I personally found myself rooting for the creature and then highly disappointed by the abrupt ending in which he fails to 'make it back home.'  Or maybe that's the simplicity of life itself: we wander aimlessly for however long we're allowed, admire the sights, meet strangers, have disappointments and one day take a captive-bolt stunning gun to the skull.