The Death and Life of John F. Donovan

Oof. The Death & Life of John F. Donovan was a hot mess. Not terrible, but how do you go from "Mommy" to this? It feels incredibly cliche with certain music choices that feels stripped from Xavier Dolan’s playlist. I can tell Dolan wrote the movie, because there's a character in the movie that blush over Kit Harington good looks for no other reason. The acting from everyone was at least good - Jacob Tremblay, Susan Sarandon and Kathy Bates being the stand outs, and the amazing looking cinematography made it visually pleasing.

Yet another movie to shout its one-note message about gender confusion and celebrity. Xavier Dolan’s first English-speaking movie is so chaotic in its narrative, the first half appears to belong to a totally different film. Its choppy, almost amateurish editing leaves the viewer irritated, while attempting to grasp what motivates his somewhat boring characters. His women tend to come across as either hopelessly lost or superficially meddlesome - while his men don’t seem to project any direction, apart from bullying or same-sex attraction. There are moments of attempted profound statements regarding superficial relationships, and the press, yet even these come across as heavy-handed philosophy and pretentious. As moviemakers are now getting to be younger, it looks like audiences can expect more and more gender confusion and PC virtue signaling. Some cinematography is nicely set up but it’s mostly foiled by music selections that tend to feel like they also belong to another movie. Gabriel Yared’s original score is as usual, quite lush but songs chosen to accompany other selected scenes are out of touch with the overall feel. Hopefully, some future young storytellers will get over their personal obsessions with their inverted sexuality and perhaps mature enough to also consider the interests of the wider community.