{"id":7863,"date":"2010-02-21T20:58:12","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T04:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7863"},"modified":"2010-02-21T22:16:23","modified_gmt":"2010-02-22T06:16:23","slug":"i-killed-my-mother-xavier-dolan-2009-canada-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/?p=7863","title":{"rendered":"I Killed My Mother (Xavier Dolan, 2009): Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Khristine Biver<\/a>. \u00a0Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2010.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Breaking into the film world in a big way by displaying a great deal of talent, 20 year-old Xavier Dolan\u2019s first feature film, J\u2019ai tue ma mere<\/em> (I Killed My Mother)<\/a> is receiving accolades from various film festivals and views alike.\u00a0 Dolan\u2019s novice talent in both acting and writing is something of note; however, Dolan\u2019s embryonic skill is obviously still in development.<\/p>\n

Sixteen-year-old Hubert Minel (Dolan) is at constant odds with his mother, Chantal (Anne Dorval).\u00a0 Hubert is trying to find his individual identity, which turns out to be the opposite of who his mother is, and as a result, they fight to no end.\u00a0 Their epic verbal battles are the main thread throughout the film.\u00a0 Hubert does not communicate with his mother about his life, including his blossoming homosexuality.\u00a0 One surmises that it is this secret that is the real cause for Hubert\u2019s antagonistic behavior.<\/p>\n

The film is drowning in angst so much so that the style of the film is not clearly seen or interpreted. Although the dialogue is very well written and rings true to many parent-teenage arguments, the deeper psychological connection to these fights is lacking. Their monumental fighting can be funny at times with the blatant lack of respect they have for each other but it quickly escalate to portray a sense of loss in their relationship.\u00a0 When the outbursts become too much, Hubert is shipped off to boarding school.<\/p>\n

To give more depths to the character of Hubert, Dolan shoots intimate direct to camera confessions in his bathroom.\u00a0 These scenes sparsely tie the film together by way giving way to the characters mind.<\/p>\n

Dolan sprinkles intellectual references throughout the film in a manner that seems more like we\u2019re supposed to be impressed that the young Dolan is aware of intellectual figures rather than integrating them cleverly to make them relevant to the film as a whole.\u00a0 For example, Hubert\u2019s boyfriend is named after Arthur Rimbaud, a remarkable poetry and prose writer from the 19th<\/sup> century, but the symbolism comes across as trite rather than meaningful. Repeated references to Cocteau and de Maupassant were too abundant and sought a knowledgeable connection but failed in doing so.<\/p>\n

The acting, however, is an incredibly strong point that stands out in the film.\u00a0 The portrayal of Hubert\u2019s lack of respect for the people in his life is evident.\u00a0 By the end of the film, Hubert is starting to realize his actions have affects on others.\u00a0 This is seen in a dream like sequence of Hubert running after his mother in the woods and her pushing him away again and again.\u00a0 Anne Dorval is outstanding in her performance at Hubert\u2019s mother; however, the film did not dedicate enough film time to her character. At his young age, Dolan does not have the life experience necessary to fully flesh out that character.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Dolan shows great promise as a filmmaker.\u00a0 He just needs a bit more life experience in order to respect all of his characters motivations and actions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reviewed by Khristine Biver. \u00a0Viewed at Santa Barbara Film Festival 2010. Breaking into the film world in a big way by displaying a great deal of talent, 20 year-old Xavier Dolan\u2019s first feature film, J\u2019ai tue ma mere (I Killed My Mother) is receiving accolades from various film festivals and views alike.\u00a0 Dolan\u2019s novice talent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":795,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,131],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-films","category-santa-barbara-film-festival-2010"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/studentfilmreviews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}