Xavier Dolan's Films Ranked

1. I Killed My Mother
2. Laurence Anyways
3. Tom at the Farm
4. Heartbeats

1. I Killed My Mother - 8/10
2. Tom at the Farm - 7.5/10
3. Mommy - 7.5/10
4. Laurence Anyways 7/10
5. Heartbeats - 6.5/10
I give my respect to those who have earned it; to everyone else, I'm civil.

I Killed My Mother
Heartbeats
Laurence Anyways
Tom At the Farm

The room's a wreck, but her napkin is folded.

I think it's not a thing that's easy to do as there are those that are more affecting and those that are maybe better. So, in the end I think I've just gone for what I like the most/what moved me most!

1. I Killed My Mother
2. Tom at the Farm
3. Heartbeats
4. Laurence Anyways

But there isn't a chasm between 1 and 4 for sure!

I find it particularly hard to separate I Killed my Mother which is more personal, honest and deeply emotionally affecting and Tom at the farm which creates such a powerful, ensnaring atmosphere and is emotionally disturbing, intense and scary. Overall, I've put I Killed my Mother above as it has made me cry, but there are some ways (and on some days!) in which I find Tom better - they're very close to equal for me and really, they're just different. I could watch both of these films over and over and dwell in their worlds. I do also find Tom deeply affecting in what it says about grief and loneliness and so on. It was the first Dolan film I saw and powerful enough to stay with me and get me interested enough to even watch any more also.

I like Heartbeats and Laurence Anyways a great deal as well. Laurence is last for me only because with all Dolan's other films, whatever the film has to say I feel it deeply, even if what it's saying is a thing that's not completely profound (for example in Heartbeats), but with Laurence, while I love that it's essentially, despite it's epic scale just a love story - about two people who love each other deeply, with an enduring love, irrespective of anything either of them could say or do: they pine apart yet cannot be together... But with only this film, I understand this about them more than I truly feel it. Suzanne Clement brings sometimes heartbreaking subtlety to Fred, but Laurence in particular is really quite a self obsessed/self absorbed character, and, worst, so cold towards Fred in the sense that she never seems to care for her - you know - not love her, but really care. I mean both characters seem just quite selfish and aren't so easy to warm to and, well.. their love is apparent, but... perhaps, a bad love? Maybe it's the point, but in the end it's hard to buy (in a way where you really feel it rather than just understanding it) this deep love between characters so wrapped up in themselves. And as such, despite the wonderful aspects of the film, whereas in other films, Xavier for me gets to deep and sometimes complex truths about his characters and who they are inside with ease and in a way that really gets to me (this is even there for me in Heartbeats), just in this one film, it's all more of an effort to get to it's point. But it gets there stylishly, and I love the point it has and what Laurence, overall, wishes from the world also.

I rather like how different everyone's responses on the thread are!

Can't wait to see Mommy!!

1. Laurence anyways
2. Heartbeats
3. I killed my mother
4. Tom at the farm

1. I Killed My Mother
2. Heartbeats
3. Mommy
4. Tom at the Farm
5. Laurence Anyways

I agree with the comments about Laurence Anyways. It's a good movie, albeit long, but the crucial relationship between Laurence and Fred somehow doesn't quite work. I'd compare it to Say Anything where the relationship between LLoyd Dobler and Diane Court didn't really work and yet it is a wonderful movie in many ways.

1. Mommy (10/10)
2. J'ai Tue Ma Mere (9/10)
3. Les Amours Imaginaires (8.5/10)