The 25-year-old, Montreal-based filmmaker Xavier Dolan premiered his fifth feature, “Mommy,” at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Enough high praise from the fest circuit (and a Cannes Jury Prize) prompted Canada to pick the film for its Foreign Oscar submission – an honor Dolan earned five years ago for his debut “I Killed My Mother.” If an unaccomplished feeling isn't weighing you down too hard (I can barely type), the first trailer for “Mommy” has arrived in anticipation of its Oscar-qualifying run.
Shot in a distinct 1:1 aspect, “Mommy” stars Anne Dorval as a widowed mother battling the throes of middle age while raising her wrathful, juvie-in-training son (Antoine-Olivier Pilon). They're next door neighbor (Suzanne Clement) arrives to complicate their troubled relationship.
Out of Cannes, In Contention's Guy Lodge described “Mommy” as a “restless interior epic of unconditional love between mother and son.” He calls Doval and Pilon's performances “remarkable,” but that the way Dolan handles their constant sparring, “risks wearing itself (not to mention its audience) out within a mere quarter-hour.”
Dolan's a major voice whose dramatic experiments are always worth entertaining, even when boxed in by an unconventional frame. Take a look at “Mommy” above.
“Mommy” will hit theaters in January 2015.