8/10
I still haven't seen Xavier Dolan's first two movies (they're on the list) but I caught his new one tonight. It's taking a lot of flak for being overlong and self-indulgent, but I didn't get that at all. It is long, but not to the point of being boring. And there's some soapboxing, but not to the point of distraction. Dolan certainly seems to have a love-or-hate style though. Chunks of the movie play out like music videos, the imagery and symbolism is sometimes as subtle as a sledgehammer, and you have to wonder sometimes what walk of life his characters are culled from in terms of their dress, the way they talk, and so on. Despite all of the above, he still tells a damn good story, and packs a lot of emotional weight and realism into what's happening on-screen. Both leads deserve a lot of credit but Suzanne Clement in particular was exceptional. Basically there's a whole lot of style, but the substance is there too...I enjoyed it quite a bit.
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