The Blue Trail

The Blue Trail is entrancingly unpredictable in its picaresque unravelling, tinged with magical realist touches.

What’s remarkable about The Blue Trail and makes it such a delight is that despite all the oppression in the air, it’s a movie filled with hope and faith in human resilience at any age. The closing image will make your heart soar. And no, it’s not the one you were expecting.

Few films this year have been as soulful or as quietly defiant.

The “Neon Bull” director has always had an incredible visual sense, though his plots tend to lack focus. Not this one.

Credit to both Weinberg’s no-nonsense performance and the director’s surrealist instincts. There is a late sequence in this film, wherein Tereza visits a floating casino, that contains some of the most vividly beautiful images I’ve seen so far this year.

An empowering narrative of one woman who refuses to see age as a ceiling, the film serves as a potent warning for viewers about the marginalization of the elderly.

The Blue Trail, despite its many narrative flaws, stands out for a striking visual style and ability to ask uncomfortable questions about aging and autonomy.