Blue Heron is director Sophy Romvari’s hushed, intimate memory of being an immigrant family in Canada and of her own brother’s fracturing mental health. Nathan Weinbender says it’s a potent study of time and loss, and it’s now playing at the Magic Lantern.

As the 52nd Seattle International Film Festival draws to a close, Nathan Weinbender returns with some of his highlights from a week in the dark.

“I Swear” is a look at the life and struggles of a man with Tourette’s Syndrome and the ignorance surrounding it, Dan Webster says.

A hangout comedy set in 2011 Montreal, Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks follows a burgeoning music writer in a community of wannabe rock stars and artists. Nathan Weinbender says it uncannily captures its time and place, like a millennial version of Almost Famous.

“All That’s Left of You” is a powerful tale of three generations of a Palestinian family, Dan Webster says.

“Fantasy Life” is a flawed study of emotionally stunted characters in search of their respective life purposes, Dan Webster says.

The Christophers is the latest from prolific director Steven Soderbergh, a dialogue-heavy comedy about an art fraud and her unlikely mentor. Nathan Weinbender says it’s an entertaining two-hander between Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel.

Aptly titled “The Drama” is a study of two troubled souls coming apart just when they should be bonding in marriage, Dan Webster says.

The Oscar-nominated “Sirāt” takes viewers on a heartbreakingly surreal road trip through Morocco’s desert, Dan Webster says.

The Oscar-nominated French-Spanish thriller Sirāt is now available on digital rental platforms. Nathan Weinbender says it’s unflinching and brutal, but also a bit empty beyond its blunt-force style.