My Review of Matthias And Maxime (2019)

 

Written And Directed by Xavier Dolan 

Matthias: "Max, it'll be weird not having you around but you'll come back a different person. So, to Max."

About a month ago, I hadn't seen any of Xavier Dolan's movies and now, I'm reviewing the last one that he's directed for now. It's been an interesting few weeks venturing into this filmmaker.

This movie focused on two men - Matthias Rivas (Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas) and his friend, Maxime Leduc (Xavier Dolan). They're friends but the movie somewhat hinted at their relationship being deeper than that. There's a longing between both men going beyond a simple friendship.

Matthias has a nice girlfriend named Sarah (Marilyn Castonguay) and was a successful businessman. Maxime on the other hand worked as a bartender and had an alcoholic mother that he fought with. Then there's the kiss between both men.

This was a topic brought up when their wealthy friend, Rivette (Pier-Luc Funk) had his pushy sister Erika (Camille Felton) got both Matthias and Maxime to kiss for a film project she was doing after her actors had dropped out for it. Needless to say that stirred some awkwardness between the pair.

Then there was the bigger issue. Maxime was leaving for Australia for work and Matthias didn't want him to go. Matthias ruined Maxime's leaving do and then made things even weirder with a confusing sexual encounter between the pair.

Throw in a rather offbeat appearance from Harris Dickinson as Kevin McAfee, a client of Matthias and there's a last minute ditch attempt for our title characters to rekindle their romance. 

- Anne Dorval appeared in the movie as Manon. Maxime had a facial scarring that Matthias brought up in one awkward scene.

- Xavier Dolan dedicated this movie to Eliza Hittman, Francis Lee, Joel Edgerton and Luca Guadagnino. They directed coming of age gay themed movies.

- Standout music: Britney Spears Work Bitch, Pet Shop Boys Always On My Mind and Alex Cameron's Stranger's Kiss.

- Chronology: 2019 in Montreal. Both characters left for Australia at the last minute.

Matthias And Maxime was a nice look into a complicated friendship between the title characters. Once again, there's strong performances from the leads and strong chemistry from both Xavier Dolan and Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas.

Rating: 7 out of 10