Universal Language

"A magnificent film, one that feels warm and familiar even as we realize just how startlingly original it is."

"This is a bittersweet lament for an interconnected age..."

"By converting his drab hometown into an exotic land filled with nostalgia, Rankin seems to be seeking out the universal language of cinema itself."

"Aiming beyond mere satire or culture-clash playfulness."

"Rankin’s Winnipeg exists in one place and one place only: his wonderfully wry mind."

"The message persisting through the dry punchlines is that to care for your neighbor, to care for all the oddities of home, is to care for yourself."

"What's going on here? And where exactly is here? Part of the movie's considerable, though not inexhaustible, charm is that it doesn't care to answer."

"A gently funny, gently moving, slightly surrealist little comedy."

"Anticipates a question that it doesn’t outright ask or answer: Does it matter what Canadians speak if they’re willing to communicate?"

"Quite universal in the emotional undercurrent of its triptych."

"I’ve not gone long without thinking about “Universal Language.” I guess Rankin’s movie dream has filtered into those of my own."

"There is no single category that you can slot Rankin’s mix of a wink, a nudge and an embrace into..."