One of the hardest parts of reviewing a film online like this, is when you get a film like Xavier Dolan's Mommy. It is a masterpiece in every sense of the word and is just all around great filmmaking and sometimes as the writer, I feel it is sometimes hard to explain to my readers, just how good a film like Mommy is, so I will do my best here. Mommy, is the type of film that reminds me of the films John Cassavetes, would have wrote and directed in the late 60's and through the 70's. Films that have excellent character study and acting as well as being extremely powerful and very emotionally intense. Films that you can identify with the characters on the screen so well and you see them going through various ordeals and trials and sometimes the acting and filmmaking depicting this is done in such a realistic and accurate way that it leaves you for the time being, feeling exhausted, drained and almost maddened. And yet at the same time you are so glad that a piece of art as every good film should be, has gotten this type of emotion from you. One thing I always tend to feel is that if a film leaves you with some type of emotion, whether it be good, or bad it has at least done part of the job it is supposed to have done on you the viewer. Watching the new film Mommy, by genius young director Xavier Dolan reminds me of everything I have just written above. The story is so powerful and the acting by the three main leads here is absolutely fantastic. I would go as far as to say that Anne Dorval, Suzanne Clement and Antoine-Olivier Pilon, do not just give some of the best performances of last year, but do indeed give the best male and female performances that I have seen in any film throughout the year 2014. The film is certainly heavy at times, which unfortunately may turn off some viewers and it is emotionally devastating and at times draining to watch because we really learn to care and have empathy for these characters and it is one of those films that when these characters are laughing and having fun, so are we, but at the same time when they are going through pain, difficulties, or situations that would cause most people to have nervous breakdowns, we feel for them inside. Sometimes it is an unpleasant and gut wrenching feeling, but as I said before, the film is so powerful and so excellently done, that we as viewers actually appreciate and admire the film all the more for making us connect and feel with the characters the way that we do. Writer/director Xavier Dolan, is only in his mid 20's and yet he has given us more emotion and seems to understand both men, women and just people in general than filmmakers who have been working twice as long as he has, or who are much older than him. Dolan, certainly has a gift of observing others and getting everything down to perfection in how he analyzes these characters and makes their situations both realistic, believable and relatable. There were certainly times during this film where I laughed with the characters on screen and times during the film where I was very emotionally moved and even cried a bit in times during the film of both sadness and joy. The emotions conveyed through the actors, direction and writing in this film is never done in a sappy, or melodramatic way, we feel for these people because we can relate to them and their situations and because we care for them. We are not all going through exactly the same situations, or scenarios that they are, but that doesn't matter because as human beings, no matter how old you are, you will always go through difficulties in your life and when you get older and see other people hurting, whether it is an experience you have gone through, or not, you still empathize and care for the person who is hurting, not because you have gone through the same thing exactly, but because you have gone through hurts in your own life as well and can relate and feel for them at the same time and in ways that you were hurt in your own life. Because this film is so emotionally powerful and draining, it will unfortunately turn some viewers off, which I think is really a shame because you don't have too often when you have a film of this caliber coming out and just truly making a mark on you as it did me because of what a great masterpiece and film in general it is. I mentioned John Cassavetes, earlier in this review who is truly a genius and one of the best American independent filmmakers who ever lived. Even though he is still young and hopefully has many more films to make, I think that Dolan is one of this generation's best directors and writers. He surely has a knack for getting under your skin and delivering one powerful message and taking you along for the ride. I am so glad to have been able to see Mommy, on the big screen and as it stands it is the single best film I have seen of 2014. Nothing else even comes close. Also, I hope in this brief review I was able to convey how great a film this is and how much it meant to me and I hope it makes you want to discover it also.