Dolan Ups the Ante in Mommy

OK, this is yet another spectacular offering from the precocious Xavier Dolan, filmmaker in Montreal.  Anne Dorval stars as a single parent (Diane Despres), opposite young Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon), who suffers from ADHD (Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder) and is a "cutter."  As in Laurence Anyways the dialog is explosive.  An angel face with the temper of a grizzly bear, Steve is a living nightmare, a Gordian knot of raging and libidinous impulses barely held in check by his medication. But he is her son, wrathful yet adoring, and Diane is a fighter, determined to save him against all odds. To temper the manic and claustrophobic co-dependence of this explosive oedipal duo, Dolan introduces a strange and attractive neighbor into the mix, the withdrawn and stammering Kyla (Suzanne Clément) who will try to homeschool Steve.

The movie is filmed claustrophobically in a perfect square 1:1 aspect ratio.  The film frames the faces of its characters skillfully, leading the viewer to concentrate on them rather than their surroundings.  Dolan found this to be more humble and private, more fitting to the lives being examines.  Cinemascope (2.35:1) would have felt pretentious, especially for scenes in small apartments.  There is a funny scene in the film where Steve reaches his hands around the frame perimeter and increases the aspect ratio.  This is some sort of post-modern effect no doubt and quite amusing.  Most viewers might not even notice.  It mimics Steve’s mind, offering no escape save in fleeting expansive moments.  Trish Ferris (Sight & Sound) opines It is also a clever way of demonstrating their emotional states and the reality they live in. It almost feels as if these individuals are stuck in this perfectly square box, their world opening up to full screen only during certain moments of pure joy and release, merely to have the walls slowly close in on them once more, as the certainty of life eventually catches up to them.

Young Xavier Dolan Makes Extraordinairy Film in Laurence Anyways

Laurence Anyways is a 2012 Canadian romantic drama film written, edited, and directed by 24-year-old Québécois wunderkind Xavier Dolan. The film competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival where Suzanne Clément won the Un Certain Regard Award for Best Actress.  It explores the volcanic relationship between Laurence, a transgender woman (Melvil Poupaud) and Frédérique ("Fred"), her female lover.  At the age of 35, Laurence, a respected literature professor in a happy, long-term relationship, announces that he has been “stealing the life of the woman [he] was meant to be,” and embarks on the process of transitioning from male to female.  The support that Fred offers Laurence is unexpected and uplifting, she doubles down on her commitment level.  Yet in the end, it’s clear that there is no resolution for the couple’s problems. Fred loves Laurence, but longs for “a man’s arms”; Laurence needs Fred, but can’t continue being a man (or apologize for his decision to become a woman). They remain true to their desires, because that’s the best they can do.

Violet Lucca (Film Comment) opines  the prejudices confronting trans, homeless gay youth and non-Caucasian gays are more pervasive and entrenched than those faced by their white, upper-middle-class counterparts who live in (or have the economic freedom to move to) gay-friendly metropolitan areas, as the 41% attempted-suicide rate of trans people makes clear.  Straight viewers may not pick up on the scene where a "world-weary fag hag" quips “It gets better, my ass,” upon seeing the eponymous Laurence’s bloodied, beaten face after a barroom brawl. This swipe at gay advice columnist Dan Savage’s highly visible awareness campaign appears amid nearly 3 hours of melodrama interspersed with soaring music video sequences. Anatomizing the disconnect between progressive idealist orthodoxy and the realities of day-to-day life, the film tackles the shallowness of broadly defined “gay culture” (parties, fashion, catty wit, sloganeering)—and the shallowness of desire.

As an only child, Dolan was raised in Montreal by women after his parents separated.  The film confirms his respect for strong women.  It is noteworthy that the bulk of the film’s screentime and attention actually goes to Fred, Laurence’s girlfriend.  Yet Laurence fails to internalize Fred's difficulties in coming to terms with him and satisfying her own needs.  This interplay between "selfish" and "selfless" may resonate with a broad spectrum of viewers, straght and gay.

Simon Howell (Sight & Sound) notes that Laurence shares with Les Amours Imaginaires a fascination with pop music (Depeche Mode, the Cure, and, of course, Fever Ray are all present and accounted for) as well as slightly abstruse framing decisions (shot-countershot patterns in which Fred and Laurence’s faces obscure each other in a none-too-subtle visual nod to their increasing emotional separation).

Jeffrey Eugenides collides with Karl Ove Knausgaard

Eugenides does a brilliant set up on Knausgaard in his book review.  Text below:

“The last time I was in New York,” Karl Ove ­Knausgaard wrote recently in The New York Times Magazine, in his account of traveling through the ­United States, “a well-known American writer invited me for lunch. . . . I tried desperately to think of something to say. We had to have something in common, we were about the same age, did the same thing for a living, wrote novels, though his were of considerably higher quality than mine. But no, I couldn’t come up with a single topic of ­conversation. . . . When we got back to Sweden, I received an email from him. He apologized for having ­invited me to lunch, he had realized he never should have done it and asked me not to reply to his email. At first I didn’t understand what he meant. . . . Then I ­realized he must have taken my silence personally. He must have thought I didn’t find it worth my time talking to him.”

Knausgaard doesn’t reveal the identity of the American writer he had lunch with. But I will: It was me. I may be the first reviewer of Knausgaard’s autobiographical works who has appeared in one of them. Therefore, I’m in a perfect position to judge how he uses the stuff of his life to fashion his stories. Ever since Knausgaard turned me into a minor character, I have an inside track on what he’s doing.