Blue Heron Review: Singular Memory Drama Is One Of The Best Movies Of 2026
By Published Apr 23, 2026, 9:00 AM EDT Alex is the Senior Editor of Reviews & Prestige Content, overseeing ScreenRant's film reviews as one of its Rotten Tomatoes-approved critics. After graduating from Brown University with a B.A. in English, he spent a locked-down year in Scotland completing a Master's in Film Studies from the University of Edinburgh, which he hears is a nice, lively city. He now lives in and works from Milan, Italy, conveniently a short train ride from the Venice Film Festival, which he first covered for SR in 2026. follow Follow followed Followed Like Like Log in Here is a fact-based summary of the story contents: Try something different: Show me the facts Explain it like I’m 5 Give me a lighthearted recap
Sometimes, movies talk. Most don't – they are content to let their characters speak for them – and of those that do, it's usually only for a moment or two. But in those moments, every little choice that goes into what we see and hear comes together to communicate, clear as day, something that we might struggle to put into words. To me, it always feels like being addressed in a language I wasn't aware I knew. These are the moments that anyone who loves cinema hopes to find in whatever they sit down to watch.
Even rarer, however, are movies like Blue Heron, which have their voice from the instant they start and never lose it. I have a pet theory that some filmmakers are "fluent" in the language of cinema; their work cuts through to the heart with an ease that makes you wonder why it usually seems so difficult. David Lynch, Stanley Kubrick, and Céline Sciamma come immediately to mind. Based on this feature debut, Sophy Romvari is another.
Blue Heron Is As Intelligently Crafted As It Is Profoundly Moving
To say Blue Heron is about memory is both true and dramatically oversimplified, but simplification is the risk of writing about films like these. Instead of clearly laying out the scope of her project (the way this form of mine demands), Romvari prefers to immerse us and let us piece things together ourselves as we go. What's most remarkable about that is how well we intuit the truth of what's happening at every step. After a brief voiceover introduces the idea that this is somehow retrospective, we are dropped in among a family moving into a new home. If you go in entirely cold, as I did, what follows is a process of gathering.
From the parents switching in and out of Hungarian, we gather that this is an immigrant family; from the difference in accent between them and their four kids, we gather they made their big move to Canada some time ago. From the technology, we gather this is set in the past, likely late 1990s, and we pretty quickly pick up on how the movie is anchored in the family's young daughter. We also gather there's tension around the eldest son, who is much older than, and looks quite different from, his siblings.
This is Blue Heron teaching us how to watch it. The curious, investigative eye we pick up as a result is rooted in this film's primary mission. The summer her family moved to Vancouver Island, Sasha (Eylul Guven) was only eight, and she did not – could not – have a full grasp on what was going on with her brother Jeremy (Edik Beddoes). But as an adult, in sections of the movie set in the present day, Sasha (Amy Zimmer) is revisiting this time in her life with the benefit of hindsight, hoping to understand.
Long before we know this for certain, we feel it. Each scene is rooted in the specificity of sensory experience, conjuring sounds and colors that take over the way they only can in memory, but the camera also wanders. It moves not like an omniscient, invisible eye, but like a specific perspective being consciously widened. We see Sasha's mother's (Iringó Réti) growing anxiety, and her father's (Ádám Tompa) attempts to keep the peace. We see their dismay at Jeremy's behavior and their frustration with the social services that offer neither solutions nor insight. It's as if adult Sasha, as she recalls her childhood memories, is shifting her attention to the margins of her own experience and filling in the gaps.
There are creative choices in Blue Heron, and especially in its final act, that are simply breathtaking.
Even as more of the story comes into view, however, Jeremy remains the enigma at its center. This film is semi-autobiographical for Romvari, but she declines to invent easier answers for herself. Sasha's process – she, like her real-life counterpart, is a filmmaker – gets her closer to her brother than she's ever been. Each new piece of information feels like a big step forward to completing the puzzle. But remembering alone can only do so much. Jeremy is, to a certain degree, unknowable.
Blue Heron's true beauty lies in its acceptance of this, and in Romvari's realization that in the absence of understanding, the best we can hope for is empathy. Film is good at empathy, and this one especially. I have focused on this movie as a triumph of detail, and it's true that each bit of dialogue or framing or sound design feels perfectly chosen to build on what came before. But it does not rest on this accumulation. There are creative choices in Blue Heron, and especially in its final act, that are simply breathtaking. They make what should be complicated very simple, and the depth of feeling they channel will crack your heart right open.
I won't risk robbing you of the experience of discovering them for yourself, though I desperately want to say more. Blue Heron is the kind of movie that begs to be written about at length. For now, I'll have to be content with assuring you that this is one of the year's best movies. If it comes to a theater near you, don't miss it.
After beginning its New York run on April 17, Blue Heron will open in Los Angeles theaters on April 24, before releasing nationwide in May.
Blue Heron
10 stars 9 stars 8 stars 7 stars 6 stars 5 stars 4 stars 3 stars 2 stars 1 star Like PG Release Date March 21, 2026 Runtime 91 minutes Director Sophy Romvari Writers Sophy Romvari Producers Gábor Osváth, Ryan Bobkin, Sara Wylie, Sophy Romvari
Cast
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Eylul Guven Sasha - Iringó Réti Mother
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