Mommy

Co-winner of the prestigious Jury Prize at Cannes, Mommy is the best film yet from Québécois wunderkind Xavier Dolan, who at age 25 already has five prizewinning features under his belt. When single mother Diane (Anne Dorval) brings her teenage son Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon) home from a government institution for troubled youth, it’s both an act of maternal love and a huge risk: Steve is a volatile hellraiser with a hair-trigger temper, and Diane is barely keeping it together herself. When a shy neighbour (Suzanne Clément) takes an interest in mother and son, a surprising trio develops. Daringly filmed in a 1:1 ratio that mimics the aesthetics of Instagram, Mommy is shot through with dazzling displays of colour and movement that intensify its affecting, outsized emotions.