Burn Your Maps (2016)

Burn Your Maps is the kind of small, brave film that takes an absurd-sounding premise—an 8-year-old who insists he’s a Mongolian goat herder—and uses it to sneak up on you with real, hard-earned feeling. Jordan Roberts keeps the vibe delicately balanced between offbeat comedy and aching family drama, letting the humor act like a pressure valve for grief rather than a distraction from it. Jacob Tremblay is wonderfully committed and strange in the best way, and Vera Farmiga gives the story its bruised, human center, while the journey’s wide-open visuals make the emotional terrain feel even bigger. It won’t be for viewers who want tidy realism or a purely lighthearted family adventure, but if you’re open to a quirky road-to-healing tale, this one lands with surprising tenderness.

Burn Your Maps is clearly aiming for a quirky, heartfelt road-trip fable about grief, identity, and a family trying to stitch itself back together after a devastating loss. The problem is it often pushes its emotions a bit too hard, leaning on tidy “healing” beats that can feel manipulative and predictable rather than earned, so the big moments may land as glib instead of profound. If you’re sensitive to movies that use a child’s eccentricity as a therapeutic shortcut, or you want a more nuanced, realistic take on mourning, this might irritate you. That said, Jacob Tremblay brings real sincerity, Vera Farmiga does what she can with the material, and if you’re in the mood for a gentle, offbeat crowd-pleaser, you may still find it intermittently touching.