Much-lauded on the festival circuit, Xavier Dolan's Mommy is landing in our cinemas this later month and it's well worth marking your diary for. It's a sometimes bitter, sometimes heart-swelling family drama that glows with warmth one minute and chills like a Siberian breeze the next. Here's a clip from the warmer end of the movie's spectrum, showing its three protagonists - mother, son and well-meaning neighbour - pull out a classic kitchen dance-off. The film is shot in a unique 1:1 aspect ration, so any squarishness of frame is entirely intentional.
A key element of the film, Dolan's mixtape-styled soundtrack borrows from Scorsese's musical tack. "In the type of movies he made, songs weren't playing ON movies anymore, but IN movies," he points out. "[It's] a way of engaging the public in the authentic, naked truth of the characters, making them forget the director's ideas and desires. I like that."
Anne Dorval plays the mum of the title, a widow whose struggles with aspects of her life are exacerbated when her livewire 15 year-old son (Antoine Olivier Pilon) is sent to live with her. He's been chewed up and spat out by the Canadian care system. She's left floundering in the face of his ADHD-sparked outbursts and his hyperactivity and rage. Into this combustible mix steps Suzanne Clément's kindly neighbour to bring her teaching skills to bear on the kid.
Five films into his moviemaking career and still only 25 years old, the French-Canadian is formidably talented.** Mommy** will be offering all the excuse you need to get the word 'wunderkind' into conversation from March 20 in the UK.