Review: 'The Souvenir: Part II' continues director Joanna Hogg's beautiful exploration of a young woman confronting her grief and finding her artistic voice

Two years after she made one of the best coming-of-age dramas in recent memory in “The Souvenir,” writer-director Joanna Hogg does it again with the well-observed and beautiful “The Souvenir Part II” — which is, as you may have guessed, a continuation of the same story.

It’s helpful to watch “The Souvenir,” because Hogg picks up where the first movie left off, and she frequently references what happened in the earlier film. That movie ended — unavoidable spoiler coming — with shy ‘80s London film student Julie Harte (Honor Swinton Byrne) reeling from the death by suicide of her boyfriend Anthony, who hid his heroin addiction for much of their relationship.

After some time retreating to her parents’ home, where her mum (Swinton Burke’s real mother, the great actor Tilda Swinton) and dad (James Spencer Ashworth) try to be understanding. Mum also tries to distract Julie by talking about her latest hobby, making pottery.

Eventually, Julie returns to university — borrowing more money from Mum first — and joining her classmates in working grunt work at a movie studio in between shooting their own short films. This allows Julie to meet a brooding actor (“Stranger Things’” Charlie Heaton) with whom , and to talk to Patrick (Richard Ayoade), the music-video director who knew of Anthony’s addictions long before she did.

After feeling aimless, Julie decides the way to understand why Anthony killed himself, and how he hid his addiction so long, is to make a movie about their time together. At first, Julie’s floundering. Her professors say her script is too vague, without enough simple directions. Her producing partner (Jaygann Ayeh) is flummoxed that she rejects the actors he suggests, casting instead a French film student, Garance (Ariane Labed), as her character — and Garance complains that the character is “too naive, too fragile.”  Meanwhile, her other classmates, who become her crew, berate her for being indecisive.

Thus, Hogg manages a thoughtful twofer: Examining Julie’s processing of grief, and following the way an artist finds her voice. She does so by expanding the small, detailed canvas of the first “Souvenir” — which focused tightly on how Julie molded herself to fit Anthony’s mentorship — and gives Julie room to discover who she really is as an adult.

Amid a strong supporting cast, notably Swinton as Julie’s eager-to-comfort mom and Ayoade as an untethered filmmaker, Swinton Byrne shines. She turns Julie from a receptacle for other people’s ideas — her mom’s, her therapist’s, her classmates’, and those of Anthony’s memory — into a fully blossoming woman who takes that input and creates her own reality.

The collaboration between Hogg and Swinton Byrne is so sharply focused that it raises an intriguing question: Would we want a “Part III,” to follow the next part of Julie’s story? Or should they leave things as they stand, and start afresh on a different story? The thought-provoking beauty of “The Souvenir: Part II” is that either option sounds like a good one.

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‘The Souvenir Part II’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, November 19, at the Broadway Centre Cinemas (Salt Lake City). Rated R for some strong sexuality, and language. Running time: 107 minutes.