Blue Heron
2025
**½
Director: Sophy Romvari
Cast: Eylul Guven, Iringó Réti, Ádám Tompa, Edik Beddoes, Amy Zimmer, Liam Serg, Preston Drabble, Lucy Turnbull, Jecca Beauchamp, Georgia Blake, Matthew Rankin
In the late 1990s, a Hungarian immigrant family of six move into their new home on Vancouver Island, where the oldest child exhibits increasingly troubling behavioral problems. Sophy Romvari's semi-autobiographical drama expands on her earlier short film Still Processing (2020). She tells the family's story through the eyes of the youngest daughter, who revisits her childhood memories as an adult. Romvari's feature debut clearly draws on painful personal history, but I'm not convinced it makes for compelling viewing. Most of the family members and their relationships remain sketchy, while the most dramatic moment takes place off-screen. To be honest, this type of observational drama in which the camera simply records minutiae of everyday life, isn't really my cup of tea.
