Anesthesia

Anesthesia (2016) is an American ensemble drama written and directed by Tim Blake Nelson, and you can watch it online on iFILM. One violent moment ties a dozen strangers together.

It opens with a mugging: an elderly Columbia philosophy professor (Sam Waterston) is attacked on a New York street. From there the film fans out across lives that barely touch — a frayed suburban mother, a student coming apart, a man drowning in addiction. Each of them is hunting for something to dull the ache.

Nelson assembles a deep cast — Glenn Close, Kristen Stewart, Corey Stoll, Michael Kenneth Williams — and threads their stories into a quiet argument about how a crowded city leaves people numb and alone. Talky, intimate and unhurried, it suits viewers who like interlocking-fate mosaics. Stream Anesthesia (2016) online on iFILM.