Matthias and Maxime have been friends since childhood. The first (Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas) is a handsome lawyer with an upward career and in a relationship with a woman, while the second (Xavier Dolan),lives with his recovering addicted mother (Anne Dorval) and is preparing a trip to spend at least two years in Australia. As a result of a bet, both must participate in a short film in which they kiss, a situation that will trigger questions in both.

Xavier Dolan addresses several issues in this film: the possibility of two men coming out of the closet after a relationship of years, the end of youth, the divergent paths that can separate two people, the relationship with their mothers (own and others) and affiliate responsibilities.

The process between the two protagonists is partly reminiscent of the films by Argentine Marco Berger, with arguments consisting of waiting for both to consume a sexual encounter after accumulating erotic tension throughout the film, only that the accumulation of tension (sexual and affective) is almost absent in Dolan's film, a process to which his ellipsis and the approach of the protagonists contribute.

The goodbye to youth is given by the noisy and festive scenes with his group of friends from different social backgrounds, in scenes that are too long that in general do not contribute to the dramatic development and provide some moment of somewhat faded humor.

The (always) conflictive relationship with the mother is a topic in Dolan's films: it also appears in I killed my mother and in Mommy and, in all three cases, with Anne Dorval in that role.

Unfortunately, in addition, all these planes do not finish combining and enhancing each other and some even become annoying from time to time due to their dispersion. Of course, the movie is well shot, with some slick images, some editing details, and an interesting soundtrack.

Matthias and Maxime is another example that shows that Dolan works better and achieves more powerful and effective stories when he operates the playful, as The Imaginary Loves and perhaps the best of his films, Tom at the Farm have shown.

"For people who become besties, their cherished friendship is always alloyed with a degree of love or affection, and a carnal one is not excluded. There is an old saying "no pure friendship can exist between a man and a woman", which now we shall modify to "no pure friendship can exist between two persons". So thematically, Dolan delves into something more removed from queerness, the consummation of Matthias and Maxime's making out in the utility room, coming lately and first in close-ups and then sublimely peered through a window pane, is less sexual than emotional, it is two best friends saying goodbye to each other, words fail them, but bodies don't lie, a rite of passage towards adulthood."

read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, thanks.

Xavier Dolan, one-time enfant terrible of French-Canadian cinema, hasn't so much mellowed as become conventional. If the plot of his latest film, "Matthias & Maxime" is a little off-the-wall, the treatment is alarmingly predictable. Two male friends agree to take part in a girlfriend's student film in a scene where they have to kiss or indeed 'make out'. Dolan, for some reason, cuts away from the kiss itself and builds his film around the impact their actions has on their lives and their friendship.

It's beautifully filmed and well acted by both Dolan and Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas in the title roles as well as by a handful of people you would hardly want to spend time with normally and therein lies the rub; there's no-one to empathize with and nothing happens to make us care very much about Matthias & Maxime and their hang-ups. I'm not disputing Dolan's very obvious talent and it's still hard to believe he's only thirty-one, (he made his first feature aged only twenty),but these male-orientated and family-orientated psychodramas are starting to get a little dull. This might first look like he's branching out but there's nothing here we haven't seen before.