Author | Demitra \u2018Demi\u2019 Kampakis | Film Editor<\/p>\n
<\/i>Mommy<\/i> is the fifth feature film to emerge from 26 year-old French-Canadian prodigy Xavier Dolan, whose 2009 directorial debut I Killed My Mother\/J\u2019ai Tue Ma Mere<\/i> (a film he also wrote and starred in at the ridiculously young age of 18) seemed to serve as a therapeutic corrective for the young ing\u00e9nue, who suffused his own personal experiences into the film\u2019s exploration of the dysfunction surrounding a mother and son\u2019s torrid dynamic.\u00a0 With his latest film, Dolan seems to be revisiting the thematic terrain of his earlier work, albeit with a few tweaks and shifts in perspective: whereas I Killed My Mother<\/i> functioned as a supercilious and hyper-stylized exercise in cinematic catharsis as told from the lens of an embittered teenage son, Mommy<\/i> presents a more contained, mature, mirror image of the former\u2019s tetchy showiness, a self-effacement in which Dolan seems to be apologizing to his own mother.\u00a0 Yet Mommy<\/i>\u2014which opened stateside late January and took home the\u00a0 Jury Prize alongside Jean-Luc Godard\u2019s Goodbye to Language<\/i> during last year\u2019s Cannes film festival\u2014nonetheless maintains the ambitious markings of its young maker; a precocious talent and cinematic enfant terrible<\/i> who robustly embraces the style, vigor and manic energy of his films with zealous commitment.<\/p>\n
Diane \u201cDie\u201d Depris is an embattled widow whose troubled, volatile son Steve, an ADHD-afflicted teenager prone to unpredictable and violent outbursts, has just been released from his residential educational facility for starting a fire that resulted in severe burns for a fellow classmate.\u00a0 A working class single mother essentially living hand to mouth by cleaning homes with the occasional gig as a children\u2019s book translator, Die is left with few options at her disposal.\u00a0 With mounting financial woes, she must now care for and home-school Steve at least until the lad turns 16, at which point she can choose to commit him without due legal process, according to a [fictional] Canadian law introduced at the film\u2019s outset.<\/p>\n Yet their blissful reunion is short-lived\u2014that is, until they meet and form an instant bond with their neighbor Kyla, a teacher on sabbatical who suffers from a stuttering speech impediment\u2014for viewers are quickly confronted with the vitriolic infrastructure of the duo\u2019s relationship: a discord fortified by pillars of resentment, contention and betrayal, as well as the destructive consequences of Steve\u2019s explosive temper.\u00a0 Playing Die is the formidable Anne Dorval, a French-Canadian actress who was also cast opposite Dolan as the titular matriarch in <\/span>I Killed My Mother<\/i>.\u00a0 Whereas that film\u2019s sourpussed self-absorption expressly aligned sympathies with its teenage son (unsurprising given the film\u2019s autobiographical nature and its helmer\u2019s age), <\/span>Mommy<\/i> broadens its scope to include the shifting perspectives of both.\u00a0 Though certain moments do invite greater empathy with Steve (likely more so for younger audiences), our sympathies are almost always with Die.\u00a0 This seesawing is one of the greatest strengths in Dolan\u2019s script, for he refuses to assign either character the role of victim or villain.\u00a0 Both mother and son are flawed outsiders\u2014wounded products of society\u2019s social, emotional, and economic constraints\u2014and the film successfully articulates the moral grey-area of its characters\u2019 behavior and dilemma.\u00a0 The film makes us sensitive to the emotional damage suffered by our young protagonist, while offering a compelling parallel in Die\u2019s frustrations and overwhelming circumstances.<\/span><\/p>\n This ambiguity is further bolstered by the work of Dorval and Steve\u2019s Antoine-Olivier Pilon; who craft mutable performances that are at once forceful and unsettling as their characters seamlessly vacillate between vulnerability and volatility: charisma quickly giving way to shameless manipulation, salty exchanges, or combative venom-spewing that certainly betray the boundaries of appropriate parent-child interactions.\u00a0 Both actors meet the delicate demands of containing their characters\u2019 thinly veiled passivity, which becomes increasingly fragile through every jaw clench or muscle tick.\u00a0 Though their reconciliations are often tenuous, a mutual understanding and unconditional protectiveness reinforce Steve and Die\u2019s intense connection.\u00a0 Theirs is a love that is as peculiar as it is polar, fluctuating between violent physicality, prickly banter, and hints of incestuous intimacy.<\/p>\n And here is where the film shines in its queer intrigue and complex approach to sexuality; for just shy of further exploring this territory, Mommy<\/i> does make several Freudian associations that suggest Steve\u2019s unkosher maternal desires.\u00a0 Steve is often seen making explicit sexual advances to older women, usually in public but always in the presence of his mother\u2014and a later slo-mo sequence set in a karaoke bar provides one of the most visceral interpretations of Oedipal jealousy in recent memory; the stylized use of color and editing further emphasizing Steve\u2019s sensory overload.\u00a0 It\u2019s interesting how, not withstanding these moments that echo maternal infatuation, Mommy<\/i> never directly addresses Steve\u2019s sexuality nor does it explore any of his burgeoning desires with others his own age, though there is a faint flirtation with queerness that is curious to consider.\u00a0 As Steve performs a song at the aforementioned karaoke bar, he is heckled with homophobic slurs; and during an earlier musical sequence for which Steve dons makeup, nail polish, and glam rock attire as him and Die bellow the notes of a sultry seduction number, his mother hardly bats an eyelash and merely responds to her son\u2019s look with a cheeky \u201cYou queen!\u201d\u00a0 An Oedipal ballad with queer undertones, Mommy<\/i>\u2019s coy approach to sexuality also invites the film\u2019s subversion of sexual innocence.\u00a0 Steve\u2019s irrational hostility to his mother\u2019s date and subsequent tantrums bring to mind a degree of infantile regression, a point that is further reiterated when he wets his pants after Kyla (another maternal figure whom he takes a liking to, at times inappropriately so) finally lays down the law after one too many outbursts.<\/p>\n Given the stratospheric decibel at which <\/span>Mommy<\/i> operates, it\u2019s not surprising that the film has been met with conflicting reactions ranging from sympathy to shock and bemusement.\u00a0 In constructing an aesthetically indulgent symphony of soap-operatic suffering, Dolan\u2019s predilection for hysterics and visually saturated histrionics threaten to overpower the film\u2019s delicate emotional core at times.\u00a0 Thankfully, his self-control as a filmmaker has matured, and here he strikes a balance between style and substance that still maintains a degree of Dolan\u2019s \u2018drama queen\u2019 theatricality, without allowing these ostentatious conventions to undermine the complicated depth of its central bond.<\/span><\/p>\n Some of the film\u2019s more bold (and some may argue, excessive) stylistic gestures even complement the film\u2019s pathos, the most notable being its 5:4 aspect ratio, which resemble the narrow \u2018selfie\u2019 dimensions of an iPhone camera held upright.\u00a0 The film\u2019s \u201cportrait\u201d framing perfectly captures the sadness in our character\u2019s eyes, and almost magnifies the pain and suffering emoted through every facial gesticulation.\u00a0 Though the film\u2019s tight framing nearly borders on claustrophobia, it is an apt reflection of the confining limitations these characters experience at the hands of society.\u00a0 This cramped space also renders the two sequences where the film\u2019s frame widens all the more poignant and liberating, particularly the first time when Steve breaks the fourth wall and actually pushes open the frame himself.\u00a0 Presented during brief respites where the characters\u2019 optimistic joy allows them to triumph over their \u201crestricted horizons,\u201d the frame\u2019s widening feels like a jubilant and expansive spiritual redemption\u2014a breath of fresh air for Dolan, his characters, and us.<\/p>\n![\"Anne](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/MommyBody1.jpeg?resize=544%2C382\")
<\/a>![\"Hitfix.\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/MommyBody2.jpeg?resize=460%2C276\")
<\/a>![\"Pilon](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/posturemag.com\/online\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/MommyBody3.jpg?resize=660%2C278\")
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