Heartbeats

Canada 2010, 97 minutes
Dir. Xavier Dolan
In French with English subtitles
Genres: Foreign Cinema, Drama / LGBT, Youth

Feat. Xavier Dolan, Niels Schneider, Monia Chokri

Aroview: A quick turnaround for precocious French Canadian dir. Xavier Dolan; his sophomore feature an equally painful and amusing bifurcated romance, in which two best friends vie for the same man.

Lacking the personal distinction of I KILLED MY MOTHER, Dolan's film nevertheless draws accurately on the naivety and inexperience of youth, all the while tiptoeing a precarious line between off-putting narcissism and endearing honesty. It's stylishly slavish, overly confident filmmaking, but then there's enough young spunk here to suggest that Dolan will only mature with each new film to come.

NZ International Film Festival 2011