I Killed My Mother Review

I Killed My Mother

Starring: Xavier Dolan, Anne Dorval, Francois Arnaud, and Suzanne Clement

Written/Directed by: Xavier Dolan

Auteur director, Xavier Dolan, might have been born Spielberg’s illegitimate love child. Not really but maybe?

Twenty years old, with two (very successful) consecutive years at The Cannes Film Festival, and the 2010 Sydney Film Prize for his feature film, ‘Heartbeats’, Xavier Dolan is making headway for stardom. ‘I Killed My Mother’, details the simmering, tempestuous, relationship of Hubert (a dissatisfied, gay, teenager in contemporary Montreal) and his loveable, but very kitsch and tacky mother, Chantale. Dolan has an uncanny ability to put the raw, unembellished truths of modern reality, firstly into his screenplays, but secondly onto the screen format. At times, his ‘experimental’ and ‘playful’ use of framing may seem tedious, but look beyond this, as Dolan truly captures the essence of the everyday squabble in his first full-length feature film.

Review by: Benjamin

‘I Killed My Mother’ is screening 6:30pm, Tuesday 9^th, at Palace Centro, and 12:00pm Sunday 14^th, Tribal Theatre. 

Scene Magazine, QLD, Issue #871
Written & Published in Scenemagazine QLD, 2010