The lights beam, the stage is set, and the music starts to fill the walls with melodic melancholy as the next performer takes the stage; riddled in sparkles, emerging from the shadows of the backstage and pulsating with the same energy and magnetism from the crowd, Simon (Théodore Pellerin) emerges onstage, full of life, vivacious and dripping with desire. We dance with him, we feel with him, we create moments and memories with his every movement on the stage; sensational, flamboyant and wondrous in every aspect; yet, once his time on stage is done, Simon is just like each and every one of us; desperate for love, affection and seeking approval from the people closest to his heart but farther from us.
Canada’s and Montreal’s own writer-director Sophie Dupuis begins her journey with so much promise and wonder and sets us in a world maybe mostly unfamiliar to most, deep in the drug riddled and carefree drag world of Montreal, where we first meet Simon, and his small little fantasy driven world. Simon, a successful makeup artist by day and a sensational and young drag-Queen by night, is a familiar and very comprehensible character to most; family oriented and very close with his sister, father and his step-mother (of sorts), who spends every Sunday morning brunch together, and whose desire for love and approval from his infamous and absent mother Claire (Anne-Marie Cadieux), whose extremely successful Opera career has left her estranged from Simon for the majority of his life. Hence, when the sudden appearance of Olivier (Félix Maritaud) shakes Simon’s world, Simon seeks communication, validation and emotional intelligence from two people in his world that are completely incapable of providing him with it.
While Olivier and Simon’s relationship builds, much to the dismay of his sister, the two begin a creative, emotional and professional alliance in the drag world that allows both of their careers to flourish, with Simon more on the co-dependent end of the relationship. Yet, when Olivier’s sexual tendencies begin to become an obstacle in the relationship, as well as Olivier’s infidelities start to cause a riff between the two, Simon begins speaking on his own behalf, giving Simon a very brief and short-lived sense of self-actualization, which Olivier turns around and gaslights Simon’s emotions into fears of loss and abandonment, emotions he felt all too truly from his mother. Simon then creates a false sense of critical distance between the couple, which allows Olivier to explore sexual relationships with co-workers, and at the same time, destroying Simon in the process.
On top of Olivier’s manipulation, Claire emerges into Simon’s life and also reverberates similar feelings of carelessness, lack of love and entitlement, which Simon is all too familiar to. Between Claire and Olivier, the similarities of disquieting nerve between Simon’s mother and Simon’s partner begin to take a toll on Simon, which sets him on a strong and very unnerving course of self-destruction and turmoil.
Solo is a very straightforward yet obtuse film about the very real and damaging expectations we set up for ourselves in our everyday world. Regardless of what irresistible flair each one of us attaints in the real world or in the our circles between our friends, families or co-workers, our need for approval, our desires for love and our constant battling with our partners/flings for affection is an absolutely encapsulating and debilitating notion that each and every one of us feels all too well and know to be all too true.
Solo is a film about breaking the needs for dependency from others, our incisive process to do better and be better for ourselves and a film that proves, regardless of sexual orientation, preference or gender identity, that love, from the people closest to us, or from strangers, is a very independent journey that leads us to very deep, dark, proactively suggestive yet powerfully independent paths that we either choose to embrace, or completely ignore.
This journey, as much as we rely or need others, is a solo affair.
Solo is a film about hope, a film about breaking free from the chains we set upon ourselves but most of all, Solo is a notion of confidence, reassurance and truth.
Night Film Reviews: 8 Out of 10.