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“It’s Only the End of the World”: The Dolan Charm is There but Verbose Family Drama Underdelivers

Xavier Dolan’s new film seemed like the event so far at Cannes judging by the longest press queue since the beginning of the festival, as well as the hustlers offering hugs in exchange for a screening invitation. Unfortunately, it seems destined to join the ample list of other highly anticipated big-name entries that didn’t quite …

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We Will Leave Someday: Jia Zhang-ke’s Westward, or Eastward Departure

The entwined subjects of time passing and landscapes changing have always been synonymous with the work of Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke; his latest feature, Mountains May Depart, expands these ideas to a point that exists beyond any previously established horizon. The film may well be Jia’s most ambitious to date, in this respect: it spans three decades …

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‘Laurence Anyways’ epitomizes the feeling of discovering great film

I’m not proud of this, but it took me 4 days to watch Laurence Anyways, and I should clarify that I didn’t watch the film in varying stretches over these 4 days, I watched it in one sitting. It’s just that that sitting wasn’t until the 4th day after I was originally supposed to watch …

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‘Miraculum’ Movie Review – feels like a failed pilot

Miraculum Written by Gabriel Sabourin Directed by Daniel Grou Canada, 2014 Daniel Grou (affectionately known as Podz by the Quebec public) got his start in television, directing a number of very successful shows for Radio-Canada, the national channel. In 2010 he made his cinematic debut with two films and has since been working exclusively for …

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‘Mommy’ is a thrilling, absolutely breathtaking piece of cinema

Montreal actor, writer and director Xavier Dolan’s fifth film Mommy is without a doubt one of the best of the year. Although thematically similar to his 2009 debut J’ai tué ma mère (I Killed My Mother), which won three separate awards at Cannes that year, Mommy follows the mother’s perspective of the relationship instead of that of the son’s. It is interesting, despite their many parallels, how very different the two films actually are. With Mommy, Dolan not only seems more assured of himself as a filmmaker but appears to have developed into quite an auteur as well. Creating a film so close in theme to his first can be seen as somewhat of a gamble, for many individuals might fear the film to be repetitious, a carbon copy, yet here is where Dolan demonstrates his disturbingly instinctual talent. Because he revisits the mother-son leitmotif in his works, he is strengthening both his storytelling as well as his understanding of the unique relationship. In the five years since his introductory film, he has grown from adolescent to adult, resulting in a shift from youthful intuition to a certain maturity on the subject. The result is downright brilliant.

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Xavier Dolan’s ‘The Death and Life of John F. Donovan’ casts Jessica Chastain

Coming off the acclaim at Toronto for two films, the Cannes darling Mommy and his starring vehicle Elephant Song, actor and filmmaker Xavier Dolan’s next film will mark his English language debut. Joining his cast is none other than Jessica Chastain, herself having risen to prominence over the past few years, with her 2011 features …

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His Soul to Make: The Music Video Stylings of Xavier Dolan

“To me, music is the soul of the film,” Xavier Dolan said in an interview with Slant Magazine in 2012, just as his third feature Laurence Anyways was about to makes it premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section. More than most directors, it seems, Dolan seems to blur the …

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‘Tom at the Farm’ is an all around fine stab at the thriller genre from Xavier Dolan

Tom at the Farm is in many ways just as arresting and bold as one might expect. Dolan is, like Québec’s other highly regarded filmmakers, what some would describe as an auteur. Conflicting emotions and styles fuse together to create the attractive cinematic molasses Xavier Dolan has built his still young reputation on. His latest lacks the same level of intense creativity and blistering energy, but until he becomes responsible for a truly dreadful film a new Dolan movie with a few warts warrants a viewing.

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Ricky D’s 50 Favourite Films of 2012 (Part Two)

  25: The Dark Knight Rises Directed by Christopher Nolan Screenplay by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan 2012, USA The Dark Knight Rises feels as if it was made up of two equal halves, with the most critical moment of the film breaking the movie in half, almost literally. While the second half may have …

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Ricky D’s 50 Favourite Films of 2012 (Part One)

2012 wasn’t a bad year for movies. It was actually a great year. The problem is, the movies we were most anticipating, specifically the Hollywood blockbusters like Prometheus and The Hobbit, didn’t live up to our expectations. With that said I still managed to make a list of 50 films I loved. Maybe I just …

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‘Laurence Anyways’ shows Dolan gaining traction, but in desperate need of an editor

Laurence Anyways Written by Xavier Dolan Directed by Xavier Dolan Canada / France, 2012 No one will dispute Xavier Dolan’s ambition. The now 23-year-old filmmaker already has three features under his belt, each more audacious than the last. Laurence Anyways, his follow-up to the warmly received Les Amours Imaginaires, seems on its face to represent …

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2010 Genie Awards Nominees

  The nominees for the 31st Annual Genie Awards, Canada’s answer to the Oscars, were unveiled at simultaneous press conferences in Montreal and Toronto yeseterday. After being snubbed by the major Hollywood awards, only receiving 1 nomination and win for Paul Giamatti at the Golden Globes, Barney’s Version has been highly recognized by Canadian audiences. …

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The Soundtrack to ‘Les Amours Imaginaires’ Might be the Best of 2010

The second outing for directer Xavier Dolan has proved to not only dispel the neurotic and vapid curse of the sophomore jinx, but has once again melded all aspects plot, character, music and wit into a divine and humourous journey through the escapades and absurdities of naive love. The complexities of emotion, sex and self …

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54th BFI London Film Festival: Heartbeats (Les Amours Imaginaires)

“There’s plenty of proof here that given a screenplay with real substance rather than just a bare-bones structure, Dolan could turn out to be a truly impressive independent film maker…” Heartbeats (Les Amours Imaginaires) Directed by Xavier Dolan Written, directed and starring Xavier Dolan, whose previous directing credit was the acclaimed I Killed My Mother …

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Les Amours Imaginaires

“Dolan uses the tricks of the medium to establish that, yes, he can manipulate form, he can be clever and referential with the best of them, and what’s more, he can control your subjective experience and align it with the vulnerability he’s trying to infuse into his picture” Les Amours Imaginaires Directed by Xavier Dolan …

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Xavier Dolan’s Hipster Dystopia

J’ai tué ma mère / Les amours imaginaires Directed by Xavier Dolan “Why was Cannes so awed by J’ai Tué Ma Mère,” one may wonder, after viewing Xavier Dolan’s angsty first feature. While baffling at first, the hype becomes more fathomable when considering the culture clash effect of the drama about a Longueuil-bred would-be hipster …

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