Mommy (2014) - Dolan outdoes himself with (probably) best film of the year

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+ 3rd Best Movie of the Year

+ Best Youth Movie of the Year + Best Canadian Movie of the Year 

The simple but lovely poster for Xavier Dolan's Mommy

Mommy is the 5th feature film by just 26 year-old Canadian wunderkind director Xavier Dolan (Heartbeats/Les Amours Imaginaires (2010)), which rocked Cannes Film Festival nearly a year ago and won the Jury Prize there.

Diane 'Die' is a struggling single mother, whose teenage son Steve's behavioral problems are the major center of her life. While they both befriend their new neighbor Kyla, the consequences of Steve's actions begin to stack up against them.

Dolan has cast three splendid actors in the pivotal main parts, all of whom he has worked with before:
Anne Dorval (I Killed My Mother/J'ai Tué ma Mère (2009)) as Die, Antoine-Olivier Pilon (Indochine: College Boy (2013) video short) as the often out of control Steve and Suzanne Clément (Laurence Anyways (2012)) as Kyla are all three luminous, animated, and never out of character.
The film is, besides two sequences in wide-screen, shot in the highly unusual 1:1 ratio, a very slim screen, and abounds with close-ups. So much more impressive is the feat of the actors and director. As with many of the other bountiful details of Mommy, the ratio also has a point; as encapsulated and inhibited as these people's stressful lives are, as distinct and - mostly - far removed from the audience's, watching them, - as square, restricted and distinct is the presentation of them that we receive.
The cinematic language is utilized seamlessly and with a master's knowledge of the many subtle effects used to get inside these people's lives. Cinematographer André Turpin (Tom at the Farm/Tom à la Ferme (2013)) deserves praise, as does Noia (Laurence Anyways) for the immersive score created for the film, which also cements its deeply lyrical quality with several memorable scenes with original songs by artists like Celine Dion, Dido, Oasis, Andrea Bocelli and Lana Del Rey.
Finally, the film exudes Dolan's inescapable, lush sense of style, as all of his films does, through the costumes that he has again designed himself with incredible talent. 

Anne Dorval, Antoine-Olivier Pilon and Suzanne Clément, a trio of transcendent actors in Xavier Dolan's Mommy

Mommy is an emotionally swelling, operatic tour-de-force, which confidently believes the charms and dramatic strengths of its few characters, as the story bounces ahead towards an end that is omened by the prologue. It is an almost monolithic work about motherly love, struggle, humiliation, and occasional freedom, open to interpretation; - for some sad, for others uplifting. - For all, I should think, it will stand out as a film that is pulsating life, troublesome as it certainly is in this case.
Mommy also stands as an interesting case to measure up against for families with kids with perceived ADD and ADHD disorders, - and for anyone who has or has ever been in a family, it makes a kind of mirroring effect almost inevitable.
Mommy may be Dolan's best film yet, although I also count his wild debut (I Killed My Mother) a masterpiece. Mommy is certainly his biggest hit and most accomplished film yet.

Related posts:

Xavier Dolan: 2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V] 

2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED IV]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2014 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 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

Anne Dorval is truly unforgettable as Diane 'Die', or Xavier Dolan's title Mommy

Watch the trailer for Mommy here

Budget: 4.9 mil. $
Box office: 12.8 mil. $ and counting
= Box office success
[Mommy is Dolan's biggest film commercially yet, and perhaps his first commercially successful strictly speaking. It has made 3.8 mil. $ (30 % of the total gross) in the US. It was Canada's official Oscar entry this year, but was, almost blasphemously, not nominated. It has won a bunch of Canadian and other awards though.]

What do you think of Mommy?
Is it Dolan's best film yet in your opinion?

Laurence Anyways (2012) - First Dolan blunder is an epic-length drag

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Immersive and stylish, the blushing poster for Xavier Dolan's Laurence Anyways

Laurence and his girlfriend Fred are madly in love, when he confides to her that he is a transsexual, and that he wants to become a woman. In the following years, Laurence accordingly changes his identity, but SPOILER loses his job and Fred.

Laurence features bold acting, and both leads give themselves 100 %: Melvin Poupard (A Summer's Tale (1996)) and Suzanne Clément (Mommy (2014)), who is especially emotional throughout, - overly so, in fact, as continual huffing, puffing, screaming and crying ultimately alienates.
The two fight a lot in the film, and French-Canadian writer-director whiz-kid Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother (2009)) holds his scenes for long, - sometimes for so long that I lost my sense of the film's structure. - Which is too long.
Laurence offers beautiful episodes and lovely music choices (Cyndi Lauper, Visage and The Cure among others) and true panache for the 1980's period in which it takes place, especially in an incredible party scene.
Transsexualism is a difficult subject for a film, and Laurence Anyways will possibly appeal most to real-life transsexuals. The film seems self-indulgent (with a 161 minute playtime) and searching in an incomplete sort of way. Furthermore, I didn't understand the ending: Did Laurence not change everything to live as he wanted, - SPOILER but then only to return to be male for Fred again?!?
Laurence Anyways is Dolan's first weak film.

Watch the trailer for Laurence Anyways with English subtitles here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertainty
[Produced by French MK2 Productions and Canadian Lyla Films, Laurence received acclaim at Cannes 2012, where Clément won Un Certain Regard Best Actress, and the film also won the Queer Palm Award and later for Best Canadian Feature at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival. Its cost and box office results are unreported.]

What do you think of Laurence Anyways?
Other film/s about being a transsexual that you want to recommend?