I recently re-visited some older Xavier Dolan movies during quarantine and i was hesitant whether i should rewatch I Killed My Mother or not for a while, mainly due to the fact that the first watch was difficult, painful and memorable, all in a good way.
I remember there was this interview of Xavier where he said he was embarrassed of this movie because of the clumsiness and all the "imperfect" details and shots, but that's the beauty of it all. These are the reasons why many young people could relate to this movie, despite it being mostly about him and his mom and despite it being based on their own dynamics, the downs and the ups and the inbetween, many people saw themselves in it. This movie felt intrusive, not towards Hubert's character and his relationship with his mom but towards me! towards you! It was intrusive towards all the viewers who experienced a similar love-hate relationship with their mothers. It was not just a movie, it was more like a personal essay, a documentary or even just a weird high quality vlog some teenager shot and put together. I was surprised to see that he doesn't realize that the messiness and clumsiness is the reason why people love this movie so much, and why it's the closest to my heart -and undoubtedly others- out of his whole filmography despite him having better movies. Even now in 2021 and having watched his whole filmography -twice for most of his films, no regents whatsoever-, it's still beyond me how wrote the script when he was only 16/17, like how did he manage to add all that depth and all these gut wrenching conversations/arguments at such a young age??? Talent at its purest.
This movie is not your traditional coming of age movie, nor is it one of those cheesy teen movies where some summer something unexpected and wonderful happens with the protagonist coming to this one big realization within the final 20 minutes or so. It's a much more honest and a much more powerful representation of a very troubled adolescent.
This movie is art and always will be.
I remember there was this interview of Xavier where he said he was embarrassed of this movie because of the clumsiness and all the "imperfect" details and shots, but that's the beauty of it all. These are the reasons why many young people could relate to this movie, despite it being mostly about him and his mom and despite it being based on their own dynamics, the downs and the ups and the inbetween, many people saw themselves in it. This movie felt intrusive, not towards Hubert's character and his relationship with his mom but towards me! towards you! It was intrusive towards all the viewers who experienced a similar love-hate relationship with their mothers. It was not just a movie, it was more like a personal essay, a documentary or even just a weird high quality vlog some teenager shot and put together. I was surprised to see that he doesn't realize that the messiness and clumsiness is the reason why people love this movie so much, and why it's the closest to my heart -and undoubtedly others- out of his whole filmography despite him having better movies. Even now in 2021 and having watched his whole filmography -twice for most of his films, no regents whatsoever-, it's still beyond me how wrote the script when he was only 16/17, like how did he manage to add all that depth and all these gut wrenching conversations/arguments at such a young age??? Talent at its purest.
This movie is not your traditional coming of age movie, nor is it one of those cheesy teen movies where some summer something unexpected and wonderful happens with the protagonist coming to this one big realization within the final 20 minutes or so. It's a much more honest and a much more powerful representation of a very troubled adolescent.
This movie is art and always will be.