Quickie: I KILLED MY MOTHER (2009)
I Killed My Mother (2009) – ****
Quickie Review
A teenage gay aesthete butts heads with his conventional bourgeois mother as the two navigate their drifting relationship. This first film by Xavier Dolan has a burgeoning visual bravado that sets the stage for even greater things to come. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s close. And Dolan’s subsequent films Heartbeats and Laurence Anyways prove that he capable of making them.
Dolan’s touch here can be both blunt and delicate. When its delicate, he shows a dramatic storytelling ability that is lost on even some of the best working directors today. With outstanding performances by both Dolan and Anne Dorval as the mother. Also starring François Arnaud and Suzanne Clément.
I Killed My Mother was screened at the Cleveland Cinematheque, the only movie house in the US to present a 35mm commercial showing of Dolan’s rarely screened first feature.
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