Reviews of “Blue Heron” and “One Night Only”

A devastating drama and a near-future rom-com

“Blue Heron”

⭐⭐⭐1/2 Rating: 3.5 out of 4

In case you missed the best film of the year (so far) — it didn’t play a Cambridge or Somerville theater — you can now catch the devastating picture digitally. In Sophy Romvari’s semi-autobiographical film, a Hungarian family relocates to Vancouver Island, Canada in the 1990s. She fuses family diary, conjured memory and the desire to understand the past within the lens of the present in a haunting, provocative way. It’s also groundbreaking in its narrative structure, bending reality and time to delve deeper into the emotional turmoil and familial pathos that cloud the borders of each frame. 

The first part of the film is told from the point of view of the young daughter — the wide-eyed Sasha, played by Eylul Guven, who is the lone girl among three brothers. The oldest, Jeremy (Edik Beddoes) from the mother’s prior marriage, is often mean to her — interfering with her rock castles at the beach, making a shield of cereal boxes at the breakfast table so he doesn’t have to look at his siblings. Those ripples become more troublesome later when he comes home in handcuffs, takes perilous roof walks, and utters veiled threats to burn down the house. Not normal and not safe, which leaves mom and dad (Iringó Réti and Ádám Tompa) at a loss about what to do. Throughout it all, there’s an edgy “We Need to Talk About Kevin” (2011) vibe, despite its home-movie-style naturalism. How the family attempts to resolve the crisis has future consequences, and that’s where we — and the film — jump ahead to the adult Sasha (Amy Zimmer), reflective and steely, making a documentary about a social work case from the 1990s: as you might expect, it’s Jeremy’s. 

The camerawork and camera placements — outside a window, aloofly watching the action from afar, or inside an adjacent room, overhearing conflict and life-altering information through a wall — are subtle and extraordinary. The cast gives robust, yet nuanced, performances. Réti and Tompa are restrained but stressed as the unnamed parents. Zimmer’s fill-in for Romvari burns soulfully in her quest for answers and closure, and Beddoes is at once viperish and intimidating, yet sympathetically vulnerable. The whole composition is a remarkable accomplishment, especially given such humble resources. The cathartic reflection and reframing of events from varying points in time is poetically akin to Cantabrigian Ross McElwee’s latest, “Remake,” likewise propelled by loss and tragedy — which, like “Blue Heron,” has yet to get a feature run this side of the Charles.

“One Night Only”

⭐⭐Rating: 2 out of 4

In this lite, ephemeral rom-com, folks in the good ol’ U.S. of A., even those liberally minded, appreciate the “fascists” in charge, at least for one night. The perplexing premise of this near-future fantasy loosely has to do with the powers-that-be allowing all single people to fornicate to their hearts’ delight for one night, and one night only. All other days of the year, only married people can do it. Why we’re back to puritanical times is never fully explained, but it’s all controlled by Big Pharma through implanted biological chips linked to the local police station that sets off alarms if you’re rounding third, or (even on the night allowed), not using a condom. (There’s surge pricing on condoms that night, so if you ever wind up in this alterreality, best to stock up).

The set-up bears the dystopian vibe of “1984” (1984), but it’s more akin to “Idiocracy” (2006) if told through a Nicholas Sparks lens. Natch, “One Night Only” is all about two lost souls seeking love. Our guides through the horny mayhem are Owen (Callum Turner, “The Boys in the Boat,” “Green Room”), who values the intimacy in the moments after coitus, while Allie (Monica Barbaro, who was so good as Joan Baez in “A Complete Unknown”) relishes the titillation of the build-up. The two keep crossing paths with “destined to be” ever hanging in the air, but often veer off with others for snog prospects that predictably implode in marginally humorous ways. Sympathy runs high for Owen, as his live-in fiancée (Maya Hawke, Ethan and Uma’s daughter) proclaims she’s going to use her hook-up chip to sleep with someone else (the hunky guy next door). This she tells Owen over omakase, then walks out on the meal — a crime times two! 

The funnier, more endearing aspects of “One Night Only” come from the main characters’ backstories. Owen owns and runs a well-loved neighborhood pizzeria (if you are really a soulmate, you know how your SO likes their pie), while Allie sings ad jingles for small pharma — the repurposing of Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” for Vagisil is brilliant. Turner and Barbaro are likable enough, but the punch-through by director Will Gluck (“Peter Rabbit”) and writer Travis Braun never gets steamy or sassy enough, nor does it address the draconian forces doling out the BlueChew ops or its consequences for shameless self-pleasure during the other 364 nights.