Mommy

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Mommy

Xavier Dolan (I Killed My Mother, Laurence Anyways) has stormed the gates of the independent filmmaking world (and done so from Québec, Canada, no less), writing, directing and sometimes starring in a string of films that feel as if he’s baring his big and beautifully wounded soul for all to see. His latest, Mommy, trains its hard stare on a widowed mother (Anne Dorval) struggling to raise her violent son (Antoine-Olivier Pilon) until a neighbor (Suzanne Clément) steps into their household and their clashing relationship dynamic. Rarely has a filmmaker dared to peel the curtain back time and again on the privacy afforded to families, and with such brutal honesty. (Opens Friday at Esquire Theatre) (R) Not screened in time for review