BLUE HERON – Official Trailer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nPOSITIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun before it, Blue Heron is a poignantly profound and poetically meditative look at the inner turmoil of familial complexities, particularly seen through the candid framing device of adolescent protagonists whose incapability of grasping cautionary realities at such a tender age imprints unshakeable traumas that last a lifetime, only to be uncovered when the curiosities of adulthood force those characters to return to the past with such newfound knowledge in life experience. While this is Romvari’s feature length directorial debut, she’s certainly no amateur when it comes to unloading her own sensitivities to the distinction of her previous short films, with the subdued psychology and mounting tension of inevitable confrontation that feels seamlessly authentic in the ways that it’s consistently conjured among those we love and trust most, without the impulsive indulgence to make this autobiographical towards speaking to an audience of one, that would otherwise diminish its everlasting appeal. Romvari’s refreshingly fearless and methodically deliberate direction evokes more of a feeling of memorability in conveying exposition to the audience, rather than a requirement to abide to a conforming narrative, with the scattered pieces of the visuals and divorced soundscapes seemingly feeling more valuable to the overall interpretation of piecing together what’s psychologically permeating beneath us, deviated only upon periodic insights of conversations and phone calls that our child protagonist stumbles upon, in order to provide contextual clarity of the often inaccessible bigger picture. Being that this is a film of two distinctly opposing halves, with the opening utilizing the opportunity to live within those memories in real-time, while the second half deviates to more of a documentarian approach from the little girl grown to confront the ghosts of her past, it requires cinematographer Maya Bankovic to essentially develop two countering approaches to the ways she textualizes this film, with the opening half evoking more of the muddied memorability of documenting details that have since withered away in the tedium of time, conveyed by an assortment of condensed shots and foggy surroundings, and the secondary half receiving a much more noticeably lucid and sleek vibrancy in its color schemes and utilized technology, in order to flesh out matters as contemporarily resonant as opening our eyes and experiencing life in real-time. Despite each of these feeling so artistically polarizing with one another, the transition between them at the movie’s midway point, is actually executed with a naturalized seamlessness that maintains the dramatic influence of matters before it, while also feeling effortless in attempting to coherently convey just where we’re at in this part of the story, and whose eyes we’re now experiencing these matters from. As a result, the film feels constantly engrossing by its digestibly appeasing style, with the camera’s wandering attention span effectively mirroring that of a child’s possessive curiosity, and the climax culminating one of my favorite sequences of the entire cinematic year, thus far, in which the elderly side of Sasha relives a vital moment in the lives of this disheveled family by implementing herself directly in the shoes of someone sent to seal their fates, which in turn allows her to experience things from another perspective that she wasn’t previously privy towards, all the while therapeutically reaching out . Romvari’s direction might certainly feel superior to her talents, but her capabilities as a screenwriter certainly don’t slouch, as she’s not only able to challenge the conventions assembled from family responsibility, without anything even closely resembling discontent in attached blame, but also asks plenty of compelling questions pertaining to understanding an undiagnosed condition that conveys how little has changed over such a grand passage of time. Romvari certainly isolates Sasha as the established protagonist, where we follow her more than any other character, but she also isn’t remotely ignorant to the parental perspective in the contextual layering of these unearthed memories from a recounting child-turned-adult, appraising valued responsibility in the overwhelmed exhaustion of supporting guardians, whose lack of credibly exploring options leaves them forced to face their own nightmare scenario of sorts, in turn maximizing the humanity caught in the crosshairs of that unfortunately inevitable decision. On top of this, the film’s intentionally sluggish pacing and seemingly directionless narrative, at least initially, won’t be for all audiences seeking answers clearly and concisely to the camouflaged conflict, but the editing surprisingly excels in its awareness towards the timing of each individualized scene, without anything meandering tediously or resolved abruptly to the integrity of its importance towards the materialized momentum, equipping just enough urgency in the execution of every scene to make the 86 minutes of screentime feel justifiable to the extent of the story being told, especially alongside the lack of tangibility to Romvari’s singular passage of time, which permeates intrusively at a moment when it finally feels like we have a grasp of the material. The shift forward into Sasha’s adult timeline certainly doesn’t feel inferior to anything previously experienced with her child arc, as the conversations allow us more insight into the character’s coming to grips with such an imperfect situation, but more importantly it illustrates the lingering restlessness in her search for accountability among those involved, proving that closure isn’t necessarily about the absolution to right the wrongs of matters unresolvable, but rather the courage and conviction to dissect unrelenting traumas that grow bigger with time. Even more than everything previously heralded, however, the film would be nothing without the kind of impactful performances that breed authenticity to these elaborately complex characters, especially Amy Zimmer, who portrayals the older side of Sasha, and Eddik Bedoes, as the quietly captive older brother Jeremy at the forefront of this family’s instability. While Eylul Given certainly appraised a wistful innocence as the younger Sasha, it’s Zimmer who stole the show for me in etching out the aching restlessness of this character, particularly during those vulnerably overwhelming moments returning to her childhood home, where Zimmer is able to articulate the weight of the world on her stoic shoulders, even in feeling mere minutes from breaking down entirely, and Bedoes, while reduced to more of a physically dominated role to balance his introspectively reserved demeanor, nails resentment and rebelliousness with a carefree exuberance that is concerning at the very least, inflicting a corresponding heaviness to scenes he instinctually walks into, and one that lingers persistently long after he’s left each frame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NEGATIVES<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a feature length directorial debut, Romvari undeniably flies high with life-altering grief, but as much as I loved and considered this film an engaging experience, I can’t overlook the glaring inferiorities of its execution, particularly some unfortunate aspects with the aforementioned screenplay that occasionally detracted significantly in the story’s immersive spell on me. This is where the film lacks the emotional gut-punch of Aftersun, as despite my maintained investment in these characters and their inevitable reality, I never attained the kind of experienced emotionality that could’ve taken this movie to the next level as one of the year’s best, and the glaring reason that I see for that incapability falls solely on the refusal to value Sasha and Jeremy’s relationship as one worth fighting for, an aspect made all the more confrontational with a screenplay that spends no time during the child arc to flesh out a meaningful dynamic that conveys his irreplaceable value on her. While I wholeheartedly understand that Romvari’s creative objective was to isolate Jeremy from the rest of the characters, in order to make him feel like the five hundred pound elephant in the room at all times, the empowering strength and determination of Sasha’s fight during the older timeline doesn’t line up synthetically to any documented bond of circumstantial trauma in their eventual displacement, leaving this film free from the kind of moving tears or surmising goosebumps that articulates the story’s unshakeable impact with an adoring audience. Beyond this, my only other problem with the film was some of the clumsiness of the dialogue during the second half, where much of the interpretive and universal appeal of this established conflict withers away in a script that concerns itself objectively to answer as many questions as possible for incapable audiences. This isn’t necessarily a problem if there’s naturally earnest methods of attaining such knowledge, but so many of the conversations (Especially those involving the medical professionals) feel like bullet point deliveries whose intentions are as obvious and mapped out as predictably assumed, and while I actually enjoyed the adult side of Sasha’s story even more than her child half, it left me yearning for the naturality of that previous section’s interactions, especially considering so many of the medical talking points unintentionally are hilarious for how out of touch they feel in Sasha seeking a meaningful remedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
OVERALL
Blue Heron is an understated and calculated meditation on family, trauma, and the restless passage of time that painstakingly alludes us, leaving little in the way of easy resolutions to the ghosts of the past that linger in the fog of unreliably suppressed memories. Sophy Romvari delivers a quiet and contemplative drama that revels in the weight of Sasha’s remorsefulness, without the need for meandering melodrama to her sensitive approach, and despite the emotionality falling flat in the depths of an underdeveloped relationship at the movie’s forefront, still manages some bold storytelling techniques that leave audiences enamored by the eloquent opportunity to toe the line between past and present, cementing a bio-fictional approach on the complexity of catharsis<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My Grade: 8.3 or B+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Directed By Sophy Romvari Starring – Eylul Guven, Edik Beddoes, Iringo Reti The Plot – A family of six settles into their new home on Vancouver Island as internal dynamics are slowly revealed through the eyes of the youngest child, Sasha (Guven) This film is currently not rated BLUE HERON – Official Trailer POSITIVES Like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9672"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9672"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9674,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9672\/revisions\/9674"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilmfreak.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}