Mommy

Anne Dorval is far and away the best actress I have had the pleasure to watch in the past couple years. She was solid in J'ai tuer ma mere. She is explosive in Mommy! I haven't written a review yet but her performance encouraged me to do so. Antoine-Olivier Pilon was great, and Suzanne Clement was also top notch.

I've never been so deeply affected by a movie. I went back and forth between laughter and tears throughout the entire movie. There were several scenes that I related to....

Something that really resonated with me was the scenes where the 3 main characters were laughing, dancing, enjoying life. I personally have a hard time remembering the moments in my life where I was truly happy. I believe that is because in those moments I was so deeply immersed in conversation and laughter that my brain was incapable of creating a memory. While watching Mommy I wasn't able to remember those moments in my life but I was able to make the connection because the performances and script were so realistic. Thank you Xavier Dolan! Waiting for more...

"What does anyone want but to feel a little more free." Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

Mommy is a film about extraordinary, ordinary people. Individual scenes may be small and everyday, but what Mommy has to say is bigger, deeper: about life itself. The film reminded me of the above quote and freedom and our quest for it is the biggest thing Mommy has to talk about for me. It's about this and also about love and family and how those closest to us are so entwined they're not entirely separate beings to us. It's easily Dolan's most affecting work to date because within it every scene stems from and is full of emotion and conveys this to the audience.

In fact the film is so filled with emotion it is hard to remember the extremes it reached. It is so devastating by the end that I had to really think back to recall how I'd laughed out loud earlier on. There is a lot of humour in the film (in its observation of characters and what they say and do, but the time that got me most of all was when two characters laugh so hysterically you can't help but laughing out loud too – there's a real danger of us all descending into uncontrollable laughter alongside the ladies on screen!) which made me glad to watch it in a full cinema where the reaction could be heard from the audience. Despite this, by the end Dolan puts you through the wringer, and all that is left is our heartbreak for his characters and that that quest could never be.

Dolan's characters, for me are always his greatest strength. Not so much the specifics of them (though I must say these three are unforgettable in that sense!) but how they work. Since his first film, he has managed to express often deep or complex aspects about who his characters (and thus, who we all!) are inside in a way where I feel it. It isn't a thing that is easy to talk about because for me Dolan can tap into the kind of things the people in his films are and feel and do that often defy rational logic but yet which we all understand totally. Wow, confusing, much?

Anyway, here too, Die, Steve and Kyla (all exceptionally portrayed) are the heart of the film. They all feel like real people and despite the 2.5 hour running time, somehow at the end of the film you feel they've been snatched away from you. All actors can convey so much in an expression or action that you feel a world of their emotion and understand things about them without them needing to be said.

The three main characters in the film all become tied to each other in a way where they're kind of enmeshed. This is most true with Steve and Die who I feel are not entirely two separate people. They are Son and Mother, but more than this – they are man and wife, lovers, little kids – sister and brother, he's prince to her queen and Steve can be the father and Die the child. He is she and she is he and this is a bond that is wrapped up in who these people are. This makes the love Dolan's familial pairings have for each other unbreakable. Steve and Die fiercely are protective of each other: above all else. Yet in this, as in Dolan's other films, people entwined together struggle to exist almost as one being when despite how interwoven they are, they are individuals too. How to be separate, yet one? Dolan's characters push each other away and pull each other tight but they can never be entirely individual, nor can they escape each other. This is for me the true link between all of Dolan's films thus far.

I just want to say something briefly about the very start to illustrate the detail I felt in the film, without describing every detail which would sound trite. Though we'll come to know Die, Mommy of the title as many things, here we are first introduced to her as Mommy: she is shown in a visual sense as the roots, the trunk of the family tree.

I guess I should talk about the fact that the film is shot in a square of screen and to be honest I barely noticed it until a truly glorious moment when the screen opens up as a character exclaims their freedom and we see our three leads feeling free fleetingly. It gave me chills. After this moment, when the screen closes again – now you feel what at least I hadn't really noticed until then – that this aspect ratio works as a visual representation of how trapped these characters are. The screen closes in at a time that truly illustrates this and from then on the black sides feel as though they're kind of that-which-will-remain- forever-unreachable. The only time the screen expands again attests to this for it is a character's dream of the future.

Mommy is pitched in an ordinary world, but at extremes of emotion, but at the core there is always honesty in what it says and it's this that for me makes Dolan a great filmmaker. Dolan gets people and when you understand people enough to not just make a film in which you care about the characters, but to make a film where no matter the character, their experiences resonate: then, you have something magic.

"What does anyone want but to feel a little more free." I quoted at the start. Though Mommy wends through humour to ultimate heartbreak, for moments in it its characters are free and perhaps through this as we escape in its world, it allows us to feel a little more free also?

Five months ago, I had no idea who Xavier Dolan was. Now, after watching 'Mommy', I have no hesitation in saying that he's one of most talented artists to have come into prominence in the past few years.

What director and writer Xavier Dolan, who is 25, achieves with 'Mommy' is quite spectacular. Not only does he manage to impress with top-notch directorial skills and an impressive and complex understanding of human relationships, but he has successfully accomplished the ultimate goal of a filmmaker: transmitting emotions -- pure, unaltered feelings.

I was never a supporter of the idea of re-watching films; I thought that by re-watching a movie, you would lose precious time that could have been used to watch a potentially even better film. However, 'Mommy' has completely destroyed this concept for me. Leaving the cinema room, I had a sense of restlessness that went away only after watching it for the second time. And guess what? The feelings the film transmitted remained as fresh and relevant as they were the first time.

There are a myriad of aspects that are worth discussing when referring to this film: the fabulous actors, the impressive use of music, the clever use of colors, the numerous jaw-dropping cinematography-related details and the variety of raw feelings 'Mommy' explores. But, by analyzing each of these aspects in detail, you may risk to experience a film whose surprises will not be as poignant as they would be by discovering them yourself.

I can safely say that 'Mommy' left an indelible mark on me. Its honesty, the beauty it exudes and its life-affirming tone make for an enthralling chef d'oeuvre that will undoubtedly have a certain effect on whoever decides to watch it.

To sum up, 'Mommy' manages to do what an important piece of art does: communicate authentic feelings. And, for this, I am grateful. Bravo, Dolan!

In a Montreal suburb, a single mother with financial and employment difficulties reunites with her violent teenage son who is being released from a detention centre. More chaos ensues.

It would be very tempting to call this film a "kitchen sink drama". There are many explosive scenes which are cathartic. Most films would have only a few such scenes, maybe only one at the climactic finale. While the catharsis might seem too much, every one of those scenes works well because of the great talent of director Xavier Dolan and his equally talented cast.

There are thankfully lighter scenes that show the love in the dysfunctional family and their ability to have fun especially as they are joined by a mysterious neighbour across the street, Kyla, who seems to have her own troubles. Her troubles seem lessened as she bonds with the unusual mother-son duo. Kyla's situation seems a bit too mysterious at times. As a subplot, it could have used a few hints to tap viewers further into the reasons why she prefers the family across the street to her own.

The film's greatest strengths are two scenes near the end. One is the perfectly executed climactic scene. The other is the one that follows - a very melancholy scene of transition with which most viewers could sadly identify.

As mentioned, Dolan has directed a superb cast. As the troubled teenager, Antoine Olivier Pilon has the perfect balance of rage and vulnerability. As the neighbour Kyla, Suzanne Clément is very believable as someone facing change and loosening up especially when she has fits of uncontrollable laughter. As the mother, Anne Dorval gives Dolan another superb performance as she did with "I Killed My Mother" (2009). Her range in the final two pivotal scenes display true brilliance. - dbamateurcritic

RATING: 9/10

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT: Performance by Anne Dorval

I had heard magnificent things about this 2014 film by Xavier Dolan, and I have to say after getting around to see it for myself that all of the praise is justified.

"Mommy" is anchored by three absolutely phenomenal performances by Anne Dorval, Antoine Olivier Pilon, and Suzanne Clement. It tells the story of a mother's fierce and at times borderline inappropriate love for her delinquent son and a shy neighbor with a sketchy past who enters their closed circle and bonds with both of them. Dolan plays around with aspect ratios, filming most of the movie in claustrophobic squares and rectangles, but occasionally and gloriously opening up the frame when the troubled youth's world shows signs of promise. The movie explores the impossible and heartbreaking decisions parents must sometimes make for the sake of their children, and the ending Dolan chooses for each of his characters is emotionally stirring in its own unique way.

Grade: A+