Matthias and Maxime have been friends since childhood. Matthias (Gabriel D’Almeida Freitas, in his second role for the big screen) tries to gain a foothold in the business world while Maxime makes a living as bartender, caring for his mother, a recovering addict.The two young men give off slight reticence, an awkwardness, it becomes clear very quickly in the film that these two aren’t just in a friendship. The tight-knit group of friends

The second part of the Cannes Festival is turning out to be more challenging, quality-wise, than the first where “Ma Loute” and “Mal de Pierres,” an off-kilter comedy and a love drama respectively, were easy to stamp as good cinema. Week two, on the other hand, isn’t all gems. Yesterday, the Dardenne Brothers’s “La fille inconnue” (“The Unknown Girl”) received a lukewarm response. It's a drama about a young woman doctor who, overcome

If you have ever watched a televised murder trial and wondered why the family would support the killer, then Xavier Dolan’s “Mommy” is the film for you. This provocative French-language Canadian film (it had its world premiere at the 2014 Cannes Festival) zeroes in on the extreme relationship of a mother and her child. At times violent at others tender and finally doomed to tragedy Dolan's "Mommy" draws the full circle of a mother's love

This Cannes Festival has finally been unshackled from the supremacy of older males turning out less than stellar work: Xavier Dolan, a twenty five year-old filmmaker from Québec who's brought films to Cannes before has thrown down the gauntlet. His new film "Mommy" is the first one to appear in the competition section and is the new favorite for the top prize this year. In “Mommy” single-mother Diane raises her violent son Steve

Last year in Cannes I remember seeing a youngish filmmaker […]

The year is 1993. Nine Cistercian monks live in the […]