Tom at the Farm (2014)

This was really something else. I had never seen a film from Xavier Dolan so I didn't know what to really expect, but this is that type of film that you're not sure just how good it really is, or if it even is good, but it's impossible to turn away. When all is said and done, its narrative is actually pretty thin, pretty simple, but it has a sort of intense, maddening tone with a bunch of scenes that come off both so weird and uncomfortable. Again, this makes it feel like a pretty distinctive experience, but once it's over the spell was sort of broken. It reminds me a lot of Stranger by the Lake in that regard, feels like it's great while watching it but after watching it you're not quite sure what you saw was of merit, but unlike that film, this one didn't leave such a bad taste in my mouth and was a lot more entertaining. Maybe not a great film, but a very interesting one at least, and it's pretty admirable that someone so young would do this. The last 15 minutes do take away a lot of its intrigue though.And maybe it says something about me, but I found Pierre Ives Cardinal so unbelievably sexy. So, so wrong but I just couldn't help it.

I really fail to see the brilliance of the movie or of Xavier Dolan. Admittedly, it is the first movie of him I watched, and I will Watch others to try to understand why everybody think he is a Genius.On the story. Parents not aware of their child's sexuality and relatives trying to hide the truth. Really not original or special. It isn't enough to make a good film, perhaps a short. Other than that it's very slow, and there is little to feed on, be it images or music. And full of clichés such as the violent and rough farmer. It is also not clear why he feels the need to disfigure the brother's friend in a bar, nor why he wasn't jailed for it or nobody questioned him about it, neither brother nor parents nor police. Or was it fine for his brother to have someone disfigured for him in a bar?What strikes about Dolan is this movie, apart from the horrible hair color, is how he seems to like filling the screen most of the time. I hadn't a stopwatch, but it feels like he is filling the screen, mostly his head, 50-70 % of the time or more. Are we supposed to be ecstatic about the acting?All in all, this is a movie, that in my opinion, one can afford not to watch.Let's just say that nothing strikes as interesting or remarkable, from the story to the photography to the original soundtrack. Acting is OK.

A very subjective review, and I hate having to put down a film (as an aspiring film director myself), but I would just want to present my personal view of the film, hopefully without ruining it for any of Dolan's fans or anyone who worked on the film. WARNING: This review may be harsh.I saw it at the BFI London Film Festival back in October of 2013. The second film I saw at the festival (following Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity"). Having heard of Xavier Dolan's apparently impressive skills vastly out-spanning his young years, I entered the theatre with much anticipation, and excitement given my immense love for psychological thrillers. Unfortunately, I could not be more disappointed with a film than I was with "Tom At The Farm".FAR too long for the slow pace of the story, I feel that the narrative does not amount to anything. The audience is made to wait an hour and forty-five minutes, and is aching for Tom to just leave the farm, which when he finally does, everything in the story is left completely unresolved. A waste of time in my opinion. An agonising wait with little to no character development or resolution to conflicts to keep the audience interested. "Tom At The Farm" utterly failed to keep me engaged, and just as much as I was dying for Tom to just leave the farm, I was dying to leave the theatre.

I was one of the lucky people to see this movie tonight at the Dutch festival 'Roze Filmdagen' (Pink Film Days) in Amsterdam before it will hit the art-house cinemas here in april. It was the opening film and the festival director Werner Borkes made clear in his opening speech that he felt like a very lucky man to be able to show us this movie already. I must say, the expectations were high and growing and most of the time high expectations are hard to live up to. But not this time.Canadian wonder child Xavier Dolan (born in '89) adapted the play by Michel Marc Bouchard, who co-wrote the script for the movie. Dolan is also playing the lead character Tom, who visits the family of his deceased lover for the funeral. The mother and homophobic brother live on a farm and when Tom tries to leave after the funeral, the brother doesn't let him. What follows is a psychological warfare between the characters and the big question is: will Tom be able to leave and does he want to…The movie is tensed from beginning till the end and the music (with a lot of strings) is used well to accompany and strengthen the secluded and somewhat claustrophobic life on the farm. Besides the tension, there is also a lot of humor in the situations and dialog that seems to turn on a dime into an awkward situation for Tom. Especially the part where Tom is talking over dinner about the so-called girlfriend Sara with the mother, who doesn't have a clue what Tom's relationship with her son is, and the brother is a memorable scene. All the actors are great and deliver the lines from their toes. Xavier Dolan is especially one to keep an eye on, this is already his third movie in his 24 years young life and he knows how to tell a great story the right way.