Critics reviews

Ultimately, the revelation here is not so much Dolan’s more contemplative approach to film-making, but the subtlety and sensitivity of his performance.

...[I]t keeps to a maximum of one easily digestible idea per scene, and is not likely to leave even the thickest viewer uncertain as to what is happening on-screen and what is likely to happen.

Much of "Matthias & Maxime" is pedestrian to the extreme, and there is a general lack of character development across the board, but the way Dolan chooses to frame things, the visual choices he makes, the way he revels unashamed in the big-ness of the emotions, makes it an entertaining ride.

The film’s visual style salutes Dolan’s past films, incorporating exceptionally kinetic camera movements while the aspect ratio of the film fluctuates twice.

This is a bewitching and magical film, with Dolan manifesting a new-found maturity, echoing in its depth the personal transformations that the film-maker may be experiencing himself.

Very little in the film holds up to much scrutiny... If his motive is irony, then the passionate romance doesn’t work, and if this is deadly serious melodrama, then the kitsch of his production is cloying.

It is Dolan’s weakness for the music promo aesthetic, and for montages set to recent pop hits, that has stood in his way of being a truly great director. Thankfully, there are fewer of those sugar highs in Matthias & Maxime, which displays a more contemplative aspect...

For a film dwelling into the simmering homoerotic tensions between two heterosexual male friends struggling to act on their desires while grappling with an encroaching and inevitable goodbye, the theatrics feel emotionally flat.

Dolan manages to impress one minute and have you wanting to slap your forehead the next.

What works so well in Matthias & Maxime is that it’s the story—this well-articulated journey of two men trying to reconcile themselves—that takes prominence over the flash. Dolan reins in, and in so doing achieves the grace and depth he was grasping for in his last two efforts.

An unstoppably garrulous, sweet-natured movie.

Matthias & Maxime reflects the agony and the ecstasy of being young and reckless with such eloquence, and reminds us that Dolan at his best is a sublimely talented artist.