Deborah Ross

Pump up the volume | 23 February 2017

And if it is a failure, at least it fails promisingly, with a stellar cast turning the volume to 11, 15... 38!

issue 25 February 2017

Xavier Dolan’s It’s Only the End of the World is one of those angst-ridden dramas focusing on what is commonly referred to as a ‘dysfunctional family’ as if there might be any other kind and it isn’t just a question of degree. This family certainly doesn’t hold back. This family has everyone shouting at everyone else for 95 minutes, blurting out brutal truths that might equally be brutal untruths (hard to tell). It has not been rapturously received. It was jeered at Cannes (even though it won the Grand Prix) and has been described by various critics as ‘insufferable’ and ‘intolerable’, which can only make you think that they haven’t seen an Avengers film for a while. But if it is a failure — if; I haven’t fully decided yet so bear with me — at least it fails promisingly, with spirit, and with a stellar cast turning the volume up to 11, 15… 38!

Some background: Dolan is the French-Canadian wunderkind of art-house cinema.

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