I Killed My Mother (2010)

While "I Killed My Mother" (J'ai Tué Ma Mére) is not a horrible first film, it's overly long and drags under the weight of deadening sequences full of bad symbolism and one note acting.The director, Xavier Dolan who plays the lead (Hubert) might have been great in one role or the other but he doesn't seem to handle triple duty (he is also credited with costume design) very well. There are indications that he is a pretty good actor and he could have benefited by the eye of a director in order to take his character from a morose and unappealing adolescent brat to an anti-hero you could actually care about. Hubert proficiently displays a lot of hurt feelings and rage toward his mother but there is little humour or heart to be seen and towards the end you just wish he'd drown himself in the bathtub in order to put the film out of its numbing misery. Anne Dorval plays Hubert's mother with an admirable degree of restraint and nuance but the cardboard cut out script and the direction that vacillates between muddy and clunky leaves her stranded as it does Suzanne Clément who plays his understanding teacher and one of his few sources of solace and refuge.The most well-rounded and sympathetic characters are Antonin, the protagonist's young lover and Patricia Tulasne who plays Antonin's mother with warmth and exuberance. These two were the only actors on screen who seemed to understand what it means to listen and to allow themselves to genuinely feel a reaction to the human beings who share the scene.On the positive side, the film is very well shot by Stéphanie Weber Biron and designed by Annette Belley. The score helps to manipulate the mood while watching but you won't remember it five minutes after the final fade. In addition to the strong look, the scenario while frequently predictable and cliché ridden captures the flavor of Montréal dialogue pretty well. There is talent here but its uneven, unfocused and jumbled, perhaps lost in the conceit of a new filmmaker starring in his own first feature.

Just...wow. This movie is written, directed, and produced by Xavier Dolan (who was 19 at the time), who also stars as the main character in the film. This movie is also semi- autobiographical. This movie is absolutely fantastic. The way that he crafts the characters and shows the arguments between the mother and son are amazing. He, Xavier Dolan, both as an actor and director, is brilliant. I really connected with the relationship presented between mother & son...my family has a very similar relationship between my sister and our mom...I saw many parallels with how they talk to each other, what they argue about, how they feel towards one another, it really spoke volumes for me. The thing that I really enjoyed about this film is how real it was. The relationship between the mother and the son was not sugarcoated, and it was very confusing, almost like a paradox, which is what real life is like. Not every familial relationship is as cut and dry as "I love you, I appreciate you and all you do for me, tada." The fact of the matter is, their relationship is complicated: he loves her so so so much but at the same time can't stand her. He wants to be independent of her but at the same time, he's still too young and he needs her, whether or not he wants to admit that. She, has sort of become desensitized to all of his insults and spats keeping her love for her son ever-present throughout all of their living together. But, at the same time, she's incredibly manipulative, and while she does love her son, she has a hard time of showing it except through caring for him and providing for him (but she does show it in the pivotal scene with the boarding school director). One claims that the other ruins his life while in reality, they both ruin each others. It's not that one is more at fault than the other, it's that they are both equally at fault here. The relationship between Hubert and his mother wasn't a typical mother son relationship, it had grown and developed over time to be more of a wife/husband relationship. Hubert's mother is a single mom, and because Hubert was the only other person she had to live with for the longest time, both of them started to see each other as equals in a sense, and the unspoken boundary between mother and son dissolved...mother and son only became titles. This is how their relationship became so toxic.All in all, this film is amazing...it has a brilliant director, emotional and astounding actors that gave very worthy performances, and a relationship between mother and son that people can relate to. It is a must watch! P.S. If you'd like to see this film, it is on Netflix. His other film, Les amours imaginaires (Heartbeats) (in which he also stars), is there as well (I haven't personally seen Heartbeats yet, but after seeing this movie, I really want to).

J'ai tue ma mere – I Killed My Mother – CATCH IT (A-) French Canadian drama about a son hating her mother is something we rarely see on screen. The complexity and pain, a 17 years old son goes through to understand his uptight serious mother is something we've never seen before. There have been many movies about loving your parents or hating your dad but there have been very few movies or shows feature a hate relationship between a son and his mother. Xavier Dolan in age 19 written, directed a beautiful complex movie which shows us a mother of a different kind. The thing is she is not a bad mother, sometimes she does feels for her son and tries everything to make him happy but sometimes she gets frustrated being a mother of young teen son. Xavier Dolan as Hubert Minal a complicated homosexual teenager is brilliant. There are many confrontations between him and Anne Dorval which will leave you speechless. Anne Dorval as evil mother in eyes of his son is absolutely amazing. There are many rare performances which make you forget that it's just a movie. Her outburst on boarding school principle on knowing that her son run away from boarding school gave me chills. She gave an award winning performance.Well I love François Arnaud, became a huge fan of him since The Borgias started. Niels Schneider has potential with his angelic presence. Suzanne Clément as Hubert's teacher is nice. Overall, J'ai tue ma mere is a great French movie about emotionally inept mother and attention seeking son. Highly recommended.

This debut from Canadian director Xavier Dolan had an 8 minute ovation when it screened at Cannes last year. Full credit must be given to Dolan for an ambitious film on a low budget. However I struggled with much of the film, which is a shame, as it has potential, storywise to be a great film.Hubert and his mother are a terrible pair, both self absorbed, both loathing each other, both loving each other. Hubert is an angst ridden 16yrs and his mother is the scourge of his life. Hubert's attitude, his demeanor and his behavior are often brutally cruel, his treatment of his mother his often despicable and shocking and far from anything that normal teenage angst brings. This was what I struggled with, his behavior, he was vile and it all felt so unnecessary, there is little explanation to his dislike of his mother, his parents are estranged, but that seems irrelevant and whilst his mother his often no better than her child, she is a far more nicer person. Her love for her son, shows that despite his abuse and rantings, the love for a child can be maintained throughout. It is remarkable she can stand it all.Teenage minds work in strange ways, we have all been there and to this extent I would like to think I can see Hubert's understanding, but I just found his behavior so horrid it made no sense. His being gay, seems to be a very little factor in his behavior, his a caring boyfriend and seems comfortable in his sexuality. Does Hubert long to be loved? Well, he is. Does he long to have a mother like his boyfriends? Well, maybe she isn't the same person, but he never gives her a chance. That he needs her is something he will never acknowledge.Story aside, there are some nice moments in it, the scene where the mother lets rip at the school principal is worthy of an award. There are some nice camera techniques and the acting is good throughout. The film is very dark, literally speaking, perhaps this is a directorial choice or maybe it's because of the low budget, but interior scenes where often so dark it looked like night.This is the sort of film that will be lauded by most and I wish I can be one of them, however with a character so unlikeable was difficult to. There are plenty of other more worthy teenage themed films out there that explore the difficulties of that age much better and are worth the praise: anyone seen The Breakfast Club? More reviews at my site iheartfilms.weebly.com