I Killed My Mother

It's not often that you come across a film made by a teenager that has gotten as much international acclaim as Xavier Dolan's feature debut, "I Killed My Mother." Dolan wrote the first draft of the screenplay in only three days when he was 17 and directed and starred in the film two years later. Dolan plays Hubert, an angry 17-year-old who lives with his mother in a working-class suburb of Montréal. He harbors a brutally intense hatred of everything about her - her unfashionable dress, her tacky décor and even the way she chews her food. In addition to this, he is trying to keep his homosexual relationship with fellow classmate Antonin out of sight from her prying eyes. Hubert often acts out in verbally violent rants - which his mother, no angel either, calls and even raises. Dolan's film explores the border territory of late adolescence and early adulthood using a variety of tactics that exploit the film's heightened sense of artificiality and distinguishes it from kitchen sink fare typical of this type of story. And amidst all the anger and hatred are delightful bursts of humor.MAX SMITH

Orig. title
J'ai tué ma mère: Cast
Anne Dorval, Xavier Dolan, François Arnaud: Producer
Xavier Dolan: Script
Xavier Dolan: Cinematography
Stéphanie Anne Weber Biron: Music
Nicholas Savard-L'Herbier: Spoken language
French: Subtitle
English