Solo (15) |Close-Up Film Review
Dir: Sophie Dupuis, Canada, 2023,102 mins, in French with subtitles,
Cast: Théodore Pellerin, Félix Maritaud, Anne-Marie Cadieux, Alice Moreault
Review by Carol Allen
All of which can be seen in French Canadian Sophie Dupuis’s Solo, a gay love story set in the world of Montreal’s drag artists. It may sound at first to be a bit niche but the characters, although some way from what is popularly considered the social “norm”, have a universality which gives it a much wider appeal.
Simon, played by pixie faced Pellerin is a rising star on the scene. He has a supportive sister Maud (Alice Moreault), who’s also a brilliant dressmaker making him some gorgeous gowns, but Simon has hang ups about their mother Claire (Anne-Marie Cadieux), a renowned opera singer, who has not played a great part in their lives. When fellow drag artist Olivier (Felix Maritaud) appears on the scene, he and Simon fall in love big time – great chemistry both on and off stage. Olivier however is self obsessed and manipulative and starts to give Simon a hard time. Then Claire arrives and Simon finds himself struggling to relate to the mother he idolises but doesn’t know.
The scenes of the drag shows are great fun and the bitchy gossip back stage even more so. But they are but icing on the humanity and complexity of the characters. The ups and downs, the emotional games and manipulation in Simon and Olivier’s relationship are easily relatable to from heterosexual experience. Cadieux as Claire, with more limited screen time, makes her character empathetic too. She’s not a cliché heartless deserting mother. Just a woman with different priorities.
The only false note is the disastrous operatic drag number Simon acts out the night his mother comes to visit the show. As a rising star with a promising career, it doesn’t quite ring true. In all other respects however this is really good story, well acted and directed, which introduces some promising Canadian talents to a wider audience.
