‘Here’ Review: Bas Devos’s Exquisite Ode to Human Connection Via the Natural World

variety.com:

Guy Lodge Film Critic The city of Brussels already has a more vivid big-screen legacy than some (it’s the home of one Jeanne Dielman, after all) but it may have found its closest, most devoted and most expansive cinematic chronicler in director Bas Devos.

Following the superb 2019 one-two of “Hellhole” and “Ghost Tropic” — respectively, a solemn reflection on urban alienation in the wake of terror attacks and a revelatory nocturnal commute through its unloved fringes — the Belgian capital gets a more summery, sanguine valentine in “Here,” albeit one still preoccupied with the city’s outsiders and outlying attractions.

In this case, it’s Brussels’ proximity to the natural world, whether via its parks or communal gardens or overgrown riverbanks, that fascinates Devos — and his two non-native characters, who connect over the unexamined riches of their immediate environment.

At just 84 minutes, with a spare script focused on quiet, open-ended encounters, Devos’s fourth feature is the kind of work that is routinely described, even by admirers, as “miniature,” though it puts forward a broader, more holistic worldview than many bigger-boned arthouse conversation pieces.