in the end, the film’s groundbreaking, incredibly successful representation of Canada’s Mi’kmaw community overshadows its well-meaning yet average road trip story.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 25, 2024

This is a poignant film that stays with you.

| Sep 23, 2022

Bretten Hannam’s film rather labours its points, but its characters have life, and the road-movie storyline is both a scenic journey and a rewarding tour of Mi’kmaq culture.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 12, 2022

It’s striking, certainly, but teasingly elusive when it comes to story resolution.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 4, 2022

The three central performances by Phillip Lewitski, Avery Winters-Anthony and Joshua Odjick, are — like the script and photography — so natural and understated that they elevate this one considerably.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 2, 2022

Delivered unsensationally but with an abundance of feeling, this is a starkly realistic film that might be driving home a socio-economic agenda, but also doesn’t hold back on the romance.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2022

There is an open-heartedness and gentleness in it, and a sense of style and place that reaches back to Malick and arguably even Mark Twain.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Aug 30, 2022

A beautiful road trip film. The pacing and plot of this love letter to Eastern Canada occasionally stumbles, but Wildhood features strong performances, gorgeous scenery and important Indigenous and LGBT themes

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 18, 2022

Bristling with attitude, the film revels in its youthful characters' loose physicality as they begin feeling freedom for the first time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 29, 2022

Though handsomely shot, Wildhood is tough-minded enough to avoid seeming like typical coming-out movie romantic wish-fulfillment.

| Jun 28, 2022

It deserves to be sought out for the loveliness of its characters, performances, and Eastern Canadian scenery

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 27, 2022

A queer Canadian romantic drama -- believable, heart-tugging, well-scripted and performed, sad and bittersweet, a perfectly lovely road movie and a screen win for indigenous representation.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 25, 2022

Wildhood proves not only how important the coming-of-age narrative is within the queer cinema realm, but that there are always new avenues to take the narrative in.

| Original Score: A- | Jun 25, 2022

Enlivened by elegant handheld cinematography and a galvanizing breakout performance from Phillip Lewitski, Wildhood is a beautiful testament to the power of authentic storytelling.

| Original Score: B | Jun 24, 2022

With its rough-hewn visual beauty and sensitive narrative touch, “Wildhood” is an affecting portrait of youth inching toward maturity.

| Original Score: B | Jun 24, 2022

Hannam’s coming of age story stands firmly on original ground, rich in culture and its exploration of sexuality.

| Original Score: B | Jun 24, 2022

Hannam’s feature might be conventional in structure, but it’s a lovely film with relatable characters you want to see overcome the roadblocks tossed at them.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 23, 2022

Leaves us with a sense of freedom and acceptance that is lighter than air.

| Jun 23, 2022

The quiet candor with which Hannam addresses issues of masculinity, and how it intersects with an Indigenous and queer identity, elevates this otherwise conventional story.

| Jun 23, 2022

It's immersive, visually stunning, and compelling.

| Jun 21, 2022