TheWrap

The result is the best kind of fine art: heartbreaking, sophisticated and deeply cinematic all at once.

The Playlist

Survived pain arises as both a vehicle for growth and catalyst for the revaluation of one’s impetus in Joanna Hogg’s introspectively awe-inspiring stroke of virtuosity The Souvenir.

Variety by Guy Lodge

Achingly well-observed in its study of a young artist inspired, derailed and finally strengthened by a toxic relationship, it is at once the coming-of-age story of many women and a specific creative manifesto for one of modern British cinema’s most singular writer-directors.

Screen Daily by Fionnuala Halligan

This portrait of the artist as a young film-maker will certainly stand the test of time.

Los Angeles Times by Justin Chang

If The Souvenir seems to move assuredly to its own unconventional rhythms, it’s because Hogg isn’t telling a straightforward story; she’s showing us, piecemeal, how an artist’s sensibility comes into being.

IndieWire by David Ehrlich

It may have taken Hogg several decades to realize that her own box of darkness was actually a beautiful gift, but she unwraps it with the care and tenderness of someone who understands its true value.

The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw

The Souvenir is an artefact in the highest auteur register. Its absence of tonal readability is a challenge. But there is also a cerebrally fierce, slow-burn passion in its austere, unemphasised plainness.

The Telegraph by Robbie Collin

In tackling a story that is presumably, and perhaps painfully, close to home, [Hogg] has made her farthest-reaching film yet.

Time Out by Joshua Rothkopf

While it’s unspooling, The Souvenir feels like the only film in the world—the only one that matters.

TheWrap by Tomris Laffy

The result is the best kind of fine art: heartbreaking, sophisticated and deeply cinematic all at once.

The Playlist by Carlos Aguilar

Survived pain arises as both a vehicle for growth and catalyst for the revaluation of one’s impetus in Joanna Hogg’s introspectively awe-inspiring stroke of virtuosity The Souvenir.

The Film Stage by Jordan Raup

Hogg’s earlier films are striking in their picturesque abstractness as we sit in on conversations from a distance, but the ambition and warmth on display in The Souvenir makes this her greatest achievement.

The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney

This is an illuminating (self-)portrait of a young artist as well as a mesmerizing chronicle of a consuming, destructive relationship that steadily inches its way under the viewer's skin.

CineVue

As heartbreaking as it is acutely observed, Hogg’s deep-diving autobiographical film is a beautiful, confessional tell-all about the brief joys and enduring tragedy that helped her find her voice as an artist.