Blue Heron (2025)

A couple [Íringó Réti, Ádám Tompa] moves to Vancouver Island with their children Henry [Liam Serg], Felix [Preston Drabble], and Sasha [Eylul Guven], and her son Jeremy [Edik Beddoes] from a previous relationship. Jeremy's eccentric, erratic behavior causes him to receive more attention than his half-siblings, and concerns grow about the consequences of his behavior. Clever work by Beddoes, who consistently maintains a blank expression while turning Jeremy into an unpredictable enigma. The finest moments are those in which Romvari sketches the contrast between Jeremy's relationship with his parents and his with the other children, with an endearingly innocent Guven as Romvari's alter ego. The lack of plot and the slow pace undermine the strong acting.

Translated from Dutch · View original

Overall, it might be just slightly lacking in substance to be a major blockbuster, but Blue Heron did move me. Especially in the final scenes, the grief, the pain, the uncertainty, but ultimately the acceptance of that not knowing, hit quite hard. Formally, Sophy Romvari also makes some intriguing choices, although the jump to the 'present' did pull me out for a very brief moment, or at least put me at an emotional distance for a bit. Especially because I was just starting to get emotionally into the story, the characters, and the atmosphere of the time period. But as mentioned, in the final fifteen minutes she manages to amply transform that rather abstract feeling back into strong emotions. Subtle and ambiguous, and as I understand it, a kind of autofictional way for Romvari to come to terms with her own youth.

In terms of content and form, it therefore goes quite a bit further than the 'ordinary' coming-of-age, but the first half really does contain some beautiful slice-of-life scenes, filmed very naturally, almost documentary-style, or as if you were watching a home video from the 90s. Particularly skillfully and beautifully done; it felt very real, and yet also poetic.

A solid 3.5*.

Translated from Dutch · View original