Matthias & Maxime (2020): Written and directed by Xavier Dolan. Starring: Xavier Dolan, Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas, Pier-Luc Funk, Samuel Gauthier, Antoine Pilon, and Anne Dorval. Running Time: 119 minutes.
Rating: 3.5/4
At its barest level, Matthias & Maxime is a romance story that follows familiar, well-worn beats; two characters insist that their relationship is platonic, but then a plot happenstance leads to a kiss that upends everything they thought they knew about each other, creating the will-they-won't-they dynamic that drives the rest of the story. And while this suffices as a one-sentence summary of the narrative structure of the film, it doesn't come anywhere close to capturing what makes this latest work by Canadian Wunderkind Xavier Dolan rise far beyond its parts into a sweet, effortlessly engaging experience that strikes a powerful balance between being funny, heartbreaking, sad, and joyous.
Matthias (Gabriel Freitas) and Maxime (Dolan himself) are part of a clique of intensely close friends, all young adult men that have basically spent their whole lives together in this one, small town in Quebec. They grew up together, went to the same schools, graduated, and are all currently in varying early stages of their respective careers, but their weeks still revolve around regular get-togethers where they drink, smoke, eat, shoot the shit, and basically act as if time and the wider world can never touch them. It's an unspoken attitude of defiance that is part and parcel of youth, but that first inevitable wrinkle of getting older has already appeared; as the film starts, Maxime is waiting for a few things to be sorted out before he will leave for Australia for, at least, two years.
At first this doesn't seem like something anyone is really bothered by, but then another wrinkle is thrown into the mix; the younger sister of one of the gang, a film student, tags along to one of the parties insisting that two of the guys fill in for a movie project of hers. Without thinking much about it, Maxime volunteers and Matthias is cajoled into joining him before either of them are told what they will have to do; make out on camera.
The tension this creates has more to do with the insistance of both men that they're "just friends" than it does with either man's sexual identity. All of the guys in the group seem to be either gay or at least bisexual. Matthias himself currently has a girlfriend, but she exhibits no shock or surprise later on when she hears about the kiss, so this is not a coming-out movie about Matthias suddenly discovering he's gay. Nonetheless, he is clearly unsettled afterwards, as conveyed by a very on-the-nose swimming sequence he has the following morning. Things only get worse as the days until Maxime's flight tick down and his final departure approaches. Parties, dinners, final get-togethers, and gift-givings are planned, but Matthias becomes increasingly surly and withdrawn, until the point comes where he's barely able to look at Maxime or even be in the same room with him. Clearly, something has to give.
Part of what keeps the experience of watching the film constantly engaging is the mixing up of editing styles, types of cameras, and framing to reflect the mood or feeling of a particular scene. All the sequences involving parties have a frenetic energy to them, as the editing speeds up to make hours go by in seconds. Moments like these effectively capture the sensation of these moments when you are young and having a wild time with good friends; specific details of what was done and said tend to blur together afterwards and become irrelevant. What matters is the sensation, or memory, of having been there.
That said, the quieter or more introspective moments are not forgotten. The film finds all sorts of ways to mix sights, sounds, and music to great effect, not least of all in the aforementioned early-morning swim. One inspired shot early on of the two characters side-by-side comes from outside the house they are in; the only lit part of the image is their profiles within a tall, narrow window frame, and the rest of the screen is black.
The cast is game too, with each member of the gang finding ways to stand out and be memorable in roles that could otherwise easily end up fading into the background. The relationships between each of them feel so real and intimate that I would almost swear Dolan wasn't even making a film, just sticking up cameras to make videos of him and his buddies that he later decided to make a movie with.
If there is one major weak spot, it's that the female roles end up ill-defined or forgotten in most cases. This is something that many have noted in other Dolan films, and here too, the almost casual dismissal of where Matthias' girlfriend stands to be affected by the potential of her boyfriend leaving her for a man is a frustrating limitation to the film's otherwise remarkable emotional depth. The mothers of the group are all framed as being almost frighteningly twee, Maxime's mother is given no redeeming qualities whatsoever, and the film reacts to the aggressive "cool" and rapid-fire slang of the filmmaking younger sister with something approaching horror. The lone exception is Matthias' mother, who seems to have a relatively deep connection to Maxime, appears especially emotional over his departing, and may even suspect more than the others what is going on between Maxime and her son.
Where the film is at its strongest is how well it establishes characters, history, arcs, and motivations with an absolute minimum of exposition. We learn very little concrete details about the character's pasts, but a great amount can be gleaned in bits and pieces of the dialogue, which throws out references, old jokes, and calls back past stories in an entirely natural way. No one monologues with their own family about everything that led to a given moment; rather, we constantly reveal little pieces of ourseves in casual conversations, an endless litany of "Remember Whens," ""That Time She," and "He Used Tos." Few films are able to capture and optimize on this dynamiy as effectively as Matthias & Maxime. The scenes where the film hits its greatest highs often hinge very explicitly on what is not said, rather than any line from the script.
This is a movie that reflects on the passage of time and will get viewers thinking about their own nostalgia, the ways their lives have changed from what they once hoped and thought was possible. It suggests that time can indeed be wasted or pass us by, but also holds the potential to be salvaged at the right moment and with the right choice. What that right choice is, like with our two lead characters, is up to each of us.
-Noah Franc
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