+ 2nd Best Movie of the Year
+ Best Canadian Movie of the Year + Best Debut Movie of the Year (Xavier Dolan) + Sexiest Movie of the Year + Best Youth Movie of the Year
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| A wild head of adolescent hair sits in a sea of panicky yellow under the ominous title for Xavier Dolan's I Killed My Mother |
Mommy Chantale lives with her 16 year-old son Hubert alone in a Montreal suburb, but the boy's intense protests against her make the rift between them grow and grow.
20 year-old Canadian writer-director-star Xavier Dolan (Heartbeats/Les Amours Imaginaires (2010)) makes one of the strongest and most persuasive debuts to date with I Killed My Mother, entering the cinema annals as a crystal clear shooting star. And for those who may have doubts about watching this based on its title, let me make it clear that this youth romance drama isn't about actual criminal matricide.
I Killed My Mother is rich on ideas, poetic and visual treats and an undeniable aesthetic sense for beauty. The film has good cinematography by Stéphanie Anne Weber Biron (Blackbird (2012)), and Dolan and Anne Dorval (Mommy (2014)) are powerful as the (putting it mildly) tension-fraught mother-son couple. Dolan's engagement in the film's meaty theme has a personal intensity to it, (the story is semi-autobiographical), dealing with rebelling against and separating from one's mother as well as the difficulties of being a homosexual teenager.
I fell head over heels in love with I Killed My Mother and had to watch it again. I've since reaffirmed that it stands the test of time and revisits. It hits the bull's eye in a way only extremely few debut films manage to do. A both very tender and very volatile work of deep meaning.
Related posts:
Xavier Dolan: Top 10: Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Mommy (2014) - Dolan has outdone himself and orchestrated the (probably) best film of the year
Tom at the Farm/Tom à la Ferme (2013) - Intense, eerie sub/dom-themed sex thriller (without sex)
Laurence Anyways (2012) - Dolan serves a stylish, jumbled, massive transsexualism tale
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Heartbeats/Les Amours Imaginaires (2010) - Dolan's second is the year's guilty pleasure #1
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2009 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Cost: Reportedly 0.8 CAD, or approximately 0.636 mil. $
Box office: 394k CAD (Canada only), or approximately 0.313 mil. $
= Uncertain
[I Killed My Mother premiered 18 May (Cannes) and runs 96 minutes. Dolan wrote the script when he was 16. Financing was supported with 0.4 mil. CAD from SODEC, which Dolan later called "an obsolete financing mechanism". Filming took place in Dolan's native Québec, Canada, including in Montreal. The film premiered to an 8-minute standing ovation in Cannes, where it won 3 side competition prizes. The film was mostly screened at a long row of festivals, but also enjoyed small releases in countries like Russia and Turkey. It was released in 12 cinemas in Québec and 60 in France, but its grosses from countries besides Canada are regrettably not released. The film was also nominated for a César Award (France's Oscar), and was Canada's official Oscar entry of the year, although it was not nominated. I Killed My Mother is fresh at 81 % with a 7.1/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of I Killed My Mother?
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