Justin Chang

In time, though, as Jeremy keeps acting out, the situation becomes untenable.

and a social worker, one of many professionals brought in to help, recommends that Jeremy be sent away.

In its dramatic restraint and psychological insight, Blue Heron reminded me of two exceptional recent films about parents and kids, Aftersun and Janet Planet, both of which were also partly inspired by their director's childhoods.

Rumvari's film is the most carefully constructed memory piece I've seen in some time.

You get the sense that she's trying to put together what she remembers as precisely as she can, right down to the clunky 90s Windows interface on Sasha's dad's computer.

Ramvari treats the camera as an instrument of subjectivity.

For the most part, we see mainly what Sasha sees and how she sees it.

Key moments are glimpsed from odd, oblique angles.

Events that Sasha never witnessed, or perhaps forgot, are not dramatized at all.

At times, the camera pans idly from left to right, a movement that simulates the act of sifting through the past.

at roughly the halfway mark blue heron makes a daring leap suddenly we are following an older version of sasha played by amy zimmer who is now like romvari a filmmaker keen to make sense of her family history

But the way she goes about it triggers a surprising twist that gently toys with our sense of time and reality.

In asking what she or anyone could have done differently, Ramvari laments the imperfections of memory, the effects of mental illness, and the limitations of even the most loving family.

This beautiful and perceptive film feels like something summoned from deep within her consciousness and piped directly into ours.

In the drama, Robert Pattinson and Zendaya play Charlie and Emma, a Boston couple whose wedding day is fast approaching.

The writer-director Christopher Borgli cleverly recaps their romance as a series of happy memories, some of which they plan to share with their friends and family members at the upcoming reception.

One such memory is the first time they met, in a bustling café.

It involved a misunderstanding, plus a white lie, and a bit of stalkerish behavior from Charlie.

It wasn't too funny at the time...

but two years later they can laugh about it.