J'ai tué ma mère

Hubert a brash 17 year old, dislikes his mother intensely. He gauges her with contempt, only seeing her out-of-date sweaters, her kitschy decor and can't bear her noisy mouth. Below the surface of these irritating traits, lie the ingrained mechanisms that his mother has always cultivated so dearly - manipulation and guilt. Hubert, confused and torn by a love-hate relationship that obsesses him more and more each day, wanders in and out of an adolescence that is both marginal and typical, combining artistic discovery, openness to friendship, ostracism, homosexuality and sex. All the while, he is consumed by his all encompassing contempt for this woman he somehow once loved. Even she does not even know how to behave with her son. The first film of Xavier Dolan, young filmmaker of barely 20 who had sensational début at this year's Cannes Film Festival, is striking like a punch, from the formal point of view (superb filming and dialogues, pop and cinematic references), as well as for its content (the pushing to the limits of a love/hate relationship, until nothing is left of it). The film is also played by wonderful actors, amongst whom Anne Dorval and Xavier Dolan himself.