“SAM NOW is remarkable not only for its powerful subject matter and the restrained, intelligent way it examines its key players, but for how it simultaneously reaches the audience and everyone involved in the story… This is one of the year’s best films.”

“Reed Harkness has made a wonderful once-in-a-lifetime film. Filled with intimate family footage, Sam Now feels like a novel or a well-crafted drama, but it’s all too true. It’s a truly artistic documentary, which should be seen and embraced by discerning audiences in North America and abroad.”

“There are very few projects as impactful as Sam Now. Balancing a dynamic energy with haunting emotions, the film is a focused slice of real life that captures a truth so powerful and complex that it simply can’t be fully understood in the realm of fiction. The feature is touching in all the right ways and stands tall as one of the best films of the year.”

“4.5 stars. A haunting, yet poignant and moving film, SAM NOW is one of 2023’s best documentaries… I am struck by how gentle and affirming the film is while also grappling with difficult traumatic events.”

“The movie comes alive once the mystery appears to have been solved. What follows is a remarkably complex exploration of fractured family dynamics that calls to mind Maggie Gyllenhaal’s THE LOST DAUGHTER in its nonjudgmental gaze and naked vulnerability.”

“It’s a masterful editing achievement to stitch an 80-minute family portrait from material that could so easily be precious, overlong and myopic. Instead, the film balances the constant allure of the past with the irresolvable present.”

“A heartbreaking work of staggering genius… SAM NOW is unlike any other movie I’ve ever seen… a truly remarkable piece of art that I won’t ever forget.”

“An Award-Worthy Portrait Of Family Over 25 Years… I am obsessed with SAM NOW… positive, inquisitive and joyful the entire way through… It’s hugely compelling and incredibly conceived, created, and thought through piece decades in the making that is self-aware enough to have grown and evolved with its subjects over that entire time, even if the motivations changed over all of that time.”

“You Must See SAM NOW… I could not take my eyes off of it, reverberating as it does with a potent mix of tragedy and the relief that comes with finally getting it off your shoulders… Harkness has given us a documentary that taps into completely unexpected wells of emotion… vibrantly made and open-hearted in its delivery… It mines emotions that are too rarely seen on screen, told with honesty and empathy. ”