Laurence Anyways Reviews

At nearly three hours, it's entirely too long, needlessly padded out with an intrusive interview-framing device.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

It's not his underdeveloped narrative that swells "Laurence Anyways" to such an unwelcome length, but the young director's apparent inability to throw out any one of his exquisite shots. Kill your darlings, Master Dolan, and then hang them on the wall.

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An infuriating mix of shattered expectations and self-important artistic masturbation, with the successful elements cruelly washed away in a torrent of ill-conceived artifice.

Full Review | Original Score: C-

Ultimately, viewers will be forced to consider whether the film's sparse narrative rewards are worth the 168-minute investment. For most, I imagine the answer is no.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

For every sublime moment the movie has to offer, there's a cinematic dead zone of indulgence that wipes it away, generating a frustrating, occasionally intolerable sit.

Full Review | Original Score: C

The story just doesn't have the heft that its 161-minute running time implies. It's about an hour longer than the story requires, even for one that spans decades.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

It evidences a hoarder's bond to moments of extravagantly photographed feeling -- no matter that it's often the same feelings being communicated, over and over.

Full Review | Original Score: C

A ridiculously overlong and self-consciously 'arty' mishmash of baroque cartoonishness and moments that, to all outward appearances, are determined to be parodies of pretentious filmmaking.

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It's just too damn much, frankly.

Full Review | Original Score: C+

Poupaud and Clement recite and smirk and shout the lines at each other, without ever seeming genuinely to care about the issues or the people.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5

[It] zeroes in on the impact of transgender on a relationship, and tries to understand what makes two people stay together or fall apart.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4

Xavier Dolan's refreshing and extraordinary achievement here is fiercely telling a grand tale with the most universal of themes (love), and carefully exempting it from victimization while not avoiding the social issues that surround it.

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Dolan, now on his third film, is confident. He takes his time. The movie is long enough and covers a great enough time span that the word "epic" will be thrown at it.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.8/10

Without belittling the challenges and prejudices Laurence faces, Dolan places her story into larger contexts, posing questions about conformity, heartbreak, love and self-fulfillment.

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Director Xavier Dolan is fast cementing himself as a writer-director willing to take risks. It might well result in a film that boasts many imperfections, but it's commendable nevertheless.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5

This big, dreamy, audacious picture has larger questions about relationships and identity. Can anyone be true to his or her inner self in the context of romantic love?

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5

A grand story that breaks down the love between two people to its purest form as a matter of the heart beyond the physical that's delicately handled

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5

Both deeply refreshing and important.

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A nearly three-hour epic, a melodrama writ large, and blessed with a young man's ambition.

Full Review | Original Score: B+

Laurence Anyways, Xavier Dolan's third film, acknowledges the messiness of transgendered life, and the sizeable gaps between tolerance, acceptance, and actually going to bed with someone.

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