Xavier Dolan - C ou D?

Saw Mommy at local theatre yesterday, one of the best movies I've seen this year. Strong performances, convincing characters, great visual style, nuanced treatment of subject matter, good use of soundtrack etc. Flopson otm re arc. Was almost crying at the end. Very youthful film. Liked the sentimental approach to storytelling (as opposed to analytical) a bit more emotionally associative editing than a rational/causal focus, somewhat reminiscent of Boyhood but really just similar to a lot of contemporary "indie" cinema.

anyone seen Laurence Anyways? As a new QC resident I am curious about Dolan, and it's on netflix.

Niels OTM on all points. I went to see "Mommy" prepared to hate it. Was my first Dolan. Really impressed me.

I thought Laurence Anyways was great. One of the better love stories I've seen in a movie.

I watched Heartbeats again, and there's so much to like about it -- the way he captures what it's like to dress like your icons, to smoke a lot of cigarettes without regret, his use of deep focus in the midst of frivolity -- that I wish it were better. At any rate it's a better debut than I Killed My Mother.

i.e he's still the sum of his influences. Forgot my beloved Louis Garrel is in it, in a fabulous last sequence.

I've only seen two: Heartbeats is cute, but empty, and Laurence Anyways is amazing. (I'm not from Quebec.)

I'm sort of cautiously eager to see Mommy.

I'm watching it again tomorrow.

I put a hold on Mommy at the library despite my tepid reaction to Tom at the Farm, because I still kinda want to like this guy. Queer Canadian solidarity, I suppose.

I saw it again: it's got enough powerful bits such that if someone wants to call it a masterpiece of something or other I won't quibble. But it's (as usual) grueling, and, boy, do his people shout a lot.

I won't quibble either, i will just throw the maker of such a claim down the stairs.

think i'm gonna stop giving this guy any more chances. every single scene in the new one goes on about two-three minutes longer than it ought to, and i know it's an adaptation of play so he didn't write but the script is just terrible. he has all of these top-shelf actors and he makes all of them just unbearable (cotillard and cassel especially, argh). ulliel's got a lovely face, but looks aren't everything and even at 90 minutes this was just a sloooooooog

Watching this thing in a couple hours. Wish me luck.

damn mommy was really good

& i felt v neutral abt laurence / tom, didnt see any earlier ones

It's Only the End of the World affirms my earlier suspicion that he is a talented director who needs better scripts. The concluding one-two punch of some punishingly literal magic realism (at least I think that's what he was going for) and the Moby song were particularly eye-rolling.

Despite my frustration with Dolan in the past, I'm intrigued by the premise of his latest, even if the reviews seem to be warning me not to get too excited:

http://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2018/09/tiff-18-the-death-and-life-of-john-f-donovan.html

My friends hated it, and they're willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. He's good in Boy Erased, though, so maybe this talented pretty boy should pull a John Cassavetes and develop his finely gelled hostility as an actor.

still, I'm looking forward to it. His last film It's Only the End of the World got trashed by the critics and I wasn't expecting much, but I really enjoyed it

I keep forgetting that I saw it.

hard to believe Dolan made I Killed My Mother when he was only 20 years old

it was the marketing hook

interesting to see the progression from I Killed My Mother to Heartbeats

I like Dolan's idea with Heartbeats that "we conceptualize love and fall for ideas, not people.”

strikes me how good an actor Dolan is

John F Donovan is apparently scandalously bad. Did it ever find a distributor?

Looking on IMDB - after TIFF last September, it was only just released in Italy and France last month, nowhere else, It must be bad

eh I'd make out with him

boy, his new film is his worst yet

Matthias & Maxime? i kinda loved it... reminded me of quebecois bros i grew up with