Movie · 2012 · Drama, Romance · 2h 48m · PG-13 · French
Curator score: 8.4/10 (94.2K ratings)
Overview
The story of an impossible love between a woman named Fred and a transgender woman named Laurence who reveals her inner desire to become her true self.
Ratings
Curator score: 8.4/10
IMDb: 7.6/10
Letterboxd: 4.05/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 84%
Metacritic: 73
TMDB: 7.6/10
Director
Xavier Dolan
Production
Lyla Films, MK2 Films, ARTE France Cinéma
Cast
Melvil Poupaud, Suzanne Clément, Nathalie Baye, Monia Chokri, Susan Almgren, Yves Jacques, Sophie Faucher, Magalie Lépine-Blondeau, Catherine Bégin, Emmanuel Schwartz, Jacques Lavallée, Perrette Souplex, Patricia Tulasne, David Savard, Monique Spaziani, Denise Filiatrault, Violette Chauveau, Mylène Jampanoï, Jacob Tierney, Gilles Renaud
Curator Review
Verdict
A bold, emotionally maximalist melodrama about gender identity, love, and the wreckage of devotion. It’s long, stylized, and intentionally overwhelming, with striking visual invention and a performance style that some viewers will find transcendent and others abrasive, but it’s absolutely a major work of queer cinema.
Best for
viewers who like passionate, operatic relationship dramas
fans of visually expressive, highly stylized filmmaking
people interested in trans narratives and queer cinema
audiences open to messy, emotionally intense characters
Skip if
you want a restrained or naturalistic drama
you’re looking for a neatly affirming trans story
you dislike long runtimes and heightened melodrama
you prefer subtle, low-key relationship films
Overview
Laurence Anyways is one of those films that announces itself with total confidence: big emotions, saturated images, and a romantic scale that treats private pain like a public event. Xavier Dolan stages the story as a feverish memory of love and self-invention, using music, costume, and camera movement to turn transition, desire, and heartbreak into something almost mythic.
Worth noting
What makes it linger is the collision between its tenderness and its volatility. The film is fascinated by the way love can be both shelter and trap, and it refuses to smooth over the damage that comes with wanting someone to remain legible to you. That tension gives the movie its force, even when its characters feel more like emotional weather systems than fully settled people.
Bottom line
It’s not an easy or universally embracing film, and some viewers will find its perspective on trans experience frustrating or dated. But as a piece of cinema, it’s remarkably assured: visually inventive, emotionally maximal, and committed to turning interior upheaval into something you can feel in your body.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Wes (5★) · 1968 likes
so if im understanding this correctly: xavier dolan can drop one of the greatest films ever made in his early 20s, meanwhile in my early 20s the highlight of my week is i got to try the new taco bell nacho fries
Lucy (3★) · 1187 likes
at this point i'd watch paint drying for 3 hours if it was made by xavier dolan
Sally Jane Black · 837 likes
This is like Transamerica but twice as long and somehow more offensive. The trans character is shown to be not a human being at all but a brooding, stalking burden on her cis partner. There is nothing about this film that shows any respect for trans people; there is nothing about this film that shows any respect for any people, really. It's just nearly three hours of a bad relationship between two ciphers, one of whom is superficially explained to… more This is like Transamerica but twice as long and somehow more offensive. The trans character is shown to be not a human being at all but a brooding, stalking burden on her cis partner. There is nothing about this film that shows any respect for trans people; there is nothing about this film that shows any respect for any people, really. It's just nearly three hours of a bad relationship between two ciphers, one of whom is superficially explained to… more
maya (4.5★) · 573 likes
can xavier dolan direct my life
Eli Hayes (4.5★) · 536 likes
In his early twenties, Dolan already had the directorial power to turn a simple hallway sequence into an incredible display of human emotion.
So many faces. Throughout this whole film,so many beautifully photographed faces.
I can see what he means when he says he's more inspired by photography than film; it shows in the way that he captures imagery as if he's trying to communicate moments to his audience, moments that build on top of one another into fragments… more