Universal Language

This is an unconventional film that slowly drew me in. There’s a tenderness about it as the boundaries between the characters loosen.

...I can imagine in principle how it might be possible to find Universal Language a moving experience, even without being familiar with any of its reference points. But I'm bound to say it left me pretty cold.

It is all so funny and absurd, I loved it.

It is just totally delightful, original, singular, so weird, kind of delicate and so bold.

It is as far from the commercial mainstream as narrative filmmaking gets, but for connoisseurs of the poetic bizarre, it has its very real enchantments.

There is no single category that you can slot Rankin’s mix of a wink, a nudge and an embrace into, so we guess “lo-fi masterpiece” will have to do until a better option comes along.

His [Rankin] movie comes with a hard core of disillusionment but also hope in humanity, and viewers in tune with his offbeat sensibilities will enjoy both the deadpan humor and the bold unconventional choices.

A comforting stew of influences ranging from Guy Maddin to Aki Kaurismaki to Roy Andersson to Abbas Kiarostami. Thankfully the sleepy middle section is leavened by a cosmic finale.

If Canada is widely accused of being boring, Rankin portrays Winnipeg in such a manner that it seems transcendentally boring.

Rankin … peppers this complex narrative with moments of surreal silliness, whether it’s a shop that only displays frozen turkeys or an ice skater who appears literally out of nowhere.