Close (2022) - Cruel heartache implodes in Dhont's lush countryside youth drama

♥♥♥♥

 

Two adolescent boys in close embrace form this warm poster for Lukas Dhont's Close

13 year-olds Leo and Remi are very close friends, who are about to start in a new school. Here classmates are quick to notice and verbalize that the two seem to me more than just best friends. The possibility that they might be a couple shakes them to their core.

Close is written by Angelo Tijssens and co-writer/director Lukas Dhont (Girl (2018), both).

A severely emotional drama, SPOILER Close has a lovely half of the two remarkably loving and close friends that haven't seemingly taken their relation to sexual places (yet); the other half is truly grim and devastating: Remi commits suicide, shockingly, in response to Leo rejecting their relation in favor of attempting to fit in as a straight, sports-interested boy.

SPOILER Is the suicide of the 13 year-old protagonist a serious swerve for the plot that's validated and informed by personal experience for Tijssen and Dhont? Because adolescent suicides (boys probably especially) are very rare, so it seems that there should be a particularly personal drive behind this plot decision in my opinion. But I have not been able to find Dhont explaining any such in the countless eloquent interviews about the film he has given. Otherwise the element is a kind of strong chili narratively (a ploy of questionable taste) that the two storytellers have added to their teen romance. - Is it backed up, or a mere drastic chili?

The question remains unanswered. What does esteem this film is its performances, especially from debuting Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele as the two boys, and Émilie Dequenne (An Irrespressible Woman/Je ne Rêve que de Vous (2019)) as the latter's mother. All give stirring, intense and authentic performances that strike strong emotional chords. Prepare to sniffle and issue teardrops with this aesthetic trip to the Belgian countryside of lush flower fields, abrupt loss and cruelest heartache.

 

Related post:

 

Lukas Dhont: Girl (2018) - Debuting Polster impresses in insightful trans drama

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 4.1 mil. $

Box office: 5 mil. $ and counting

= Big flop (has returned 1.21 times at time of writing this)

[Close premiered 26 May (Cannes Film Festival, main competition) and runs 104 minutes. At least 16 companies and support bodies cooperated in the financing and making of the film. Shooting took place around July 2021 in Netherlands and Belgium. Dhont has explained in interviews that the film is about close male friendship between adolescents. The film opened #26 to a 61k $ first weekend in North America, where it peaked at #21 and in 233 theaters (different weeks), grossing 1.1 mil. $ (22 % of the total gross to date). The film's biggest market is France with 1.3 mil. $ (26 %); North America was 2nd biggest and Netherlands 3rd biggest with 1 mil. $ (20 %). The film was Oscar-nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film, lost to All Quiet on the Western Front. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, 6 European Film awards, a César award, won 7/10 Magritte award nominations (Belgium's Oscar) and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. It lost the Palme d'Or to The Triangle of Sadness. Dhont has not announced his next film yet. Dambrine and De Waele also have not announced their returns yet. Close is certified fresh at 92 % with a 8.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Close?

Girl (2018) - Debuting Polster impresses in insightful trans drama

♥♥♥

 

Star Victor Polster's angelic visage adorns this turquoise back-colored poster for Lukas Dhont's Girl

Lara is 16 years old, studies ballet and is transgender. She is fighting to cover up her male characteristics and struggling with the waiting period up to the genital operation that she looks forward to.

Girl is written by Angelo Tijssens (Iceland/Ijsland (2010, short)) and directed by debuting Lukas Dhont (Headlong/Corps Perdu (2012, short)).

It is an impressively bold and tender performance from debuting Victor Polster that drives Girl, which dwells on him for every moment of its running time. Some of its many shots, particularly of the ballet studies, become a bit monotonous.

Lara gets support from her father and surroundings in general, - SPOILER the film only has a single scene of group pressure, a very mild form of abuse, - and for this reason it is hard to comprehend what exactly drives Lara to genital mutilation in the film's end, - which can also ruin the opportunities for a successful gender switch operation. Several scenes of the physical issues of the trans affliction, - especially the explanation of the operation, - are very unpleasant to witness. But Girl is certainly enlightening.

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 1.5 mil. €, approximately 1.81 mil. $

Box office: 4.1 mil. $

= Minor flop (returned its cost 2.26 times)

[Girl premiered 12 May (Cannes Film Festival, Un Certain Regard section) and runs 106 minutes. Dhont and Tijssens found inspiration and insight for the screenplay from Nora Monsecour, whose personal story is the basis for it. Shooting took place from August - September 2017 in Belgium, including Brussels. Polster, 14 years old at the time, got consent from his parents to do the film's nude scenes. The film was not released theatrically in North America. Its 3 biggest markets were France with 2.6 mil. $ (63.4 % of the total gross), the Netherlands with 1.2 mil. $ (29.3 %) and Greece with 72k $ (1.8 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, won 5 prizes in Cannes, was nominated for a César award, won 1/4 European Film award nominations, 4/9 Magritte award nominations (Belgium's Oscar), and it was also Belgium's official Oscar entry of the year. Dhont has since only made Our Nature (2021, short). Polster is returning in Les Rivières Pourpres (2021, TV-series). Girl is certified fresh at 85 % with a 7.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Girl?