SummaryTwo childhood best friends are asked to share a kiss for the purposes of a student short film. Soon, a lingering doubt sets in, confronting both men with their preferences, threatening the brotherhood of their social circle, and, eventually, changing their lives.
SummaryTwo childhood best friends are asked to share a kiss for the purposes of a student short film. Soon, a lingering doubt sets in, confronting both men with their preferences, threatening the brotherhood of their social circle, and, eventually, changing their lives.
A relatively subtle yet moving entry into the Dolanverse, where explosive love is sublimated beneath the ebb and flow of friendship rhythms, and characters are revealed in tender observational details.
Much of Matthias & Maxime is pedestrian to the extreme, and there is a general lack of character development across the board, but the way Dolan chooses to frame things, the visual choices he makes, the way he revels unashamed in the big-ness of the emotions, makes it an entertaining ride.
Unfortunately, the new film Matthias & Maxime arrives lacking much of the emotional urgency of the Dolan who once captured the international art-house crowd, feeling provincial in more ways than one.
On occasion, the sincerity and unabashed emotion can be bracing, but more often this rambunctiously enthusiastic writer-director overestimates how compelling his protagonists’ plight is, giving us a florid melodrama without enough grit underneath the operatics.
Production Company
Sons of Manual,
Téléfilm Canada,
Société de Développement des Entreprises Culturelles (SODEC),
Quebec Film and Television Tax Credit,
Crédit d'Impôt pour la Production Cinématographique ou Magnétoscopique Canadienne,
The Harold Greenberg Fund,
Radio Canada,
PHI Studio,
Fonds Quebecor,
Super Ecran