Let's be honest: you might hate this movie. Don't come for the birds (though they figure prominently, especially in the misleadingly straightforward first act, as avid birdwatcher Fernando heads down-river through northern Portugal). And don't come if you like predictable, linear, naturalistic stories, because while The Ornithologist is linear and follows a fairly traditional journey-arc, as soon as Fernando loses control of his kayak in the rapids and hits his head, things start to get weird, and fast.

He's "saved" by two Chinese women, pilgrims who have strayed from the Camino de Santiago. But they string him up in the night and seem to mean him harm. He escapes, but there are more disturbing encounters in store, some homoerotic, some violent and many of a religious, mythical or spiritual aspect-or all of the above. In short, it's a trip; a strange and wonderful odyssey that nods to Buñuel's The Milky Way, to being a Catholic (or ex-Catholic) gay filmmaker, to the canyons and the forests, the birds and the bees... You know, you might love it at that. (We did.)

"Spellbinding... An immersion in pure cinema." Justin Chang, The Los Angeles Times