El Houcin Houssam, Essex County’s 2024-25 teacher of the year, shares his favorite lesson to teach, his own experience as an ...

Produced in an era crowded with movies about division, Matthew Rankin’s ‘Universal Language’ stands out for its generosity, ...

Unconventional director Matthew Rankin affirms his reputation for atypical filmmaking with absurdist comedy 'Universal Language'. Read more here.

At the crossroads of Iranian and Canadian culture, “Universal Language” is a unique mixture of surrealism and normalcy. The ...

“Universal Language” is the result: a trilogy of overlapping tales that appears to be absurdist but that gathers force and soulful undercurrents of melancholy. It is as far from the commercial ...

Universal Language (2025) (Une Langue Universelle), directed by Matthew Rankin and written by Ila Firouzabadi and Pirouz Nemati is a sensational marriage of film traditions. With deep influences ...

Patti Smith orbited in many rock stars' planets before becoming one herself, but there was a special eminent figure who was ...

It all starts with a turkey. Though “starts” might not be the correct word to use for Universal Language, Matthew Rankin’s surreal, loopy film set in some bizarre alternate version of ...

Matthew Rankin in ‘Universal Language.’ We have not even mentioned the turkeys yet, notably the gobbling winner of a sexy-turkey-beauty-contest who’s traveling by bus (that vehicle is driven ...

As a surreal, offbeat blending of Canada and Iran, “Universal Language” boast a tone that is both somber and humorous, Dan ...

The film’s surrealism is not a new style for Rankin, whose 2019 directorial debut, “The Twentieth Century,” received positive reviews from critics as a surrealist black comedy. Even though “Universal ...

In “Universal Language,” two girls look for the means to liberate a huge bill frozen in ice; an intrepid tour guide leads a bewildered group around the landmarks of the city; and a dispirited ...