Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

lasttimeisaw To follow the chronic order, I decide to watch this film before Dolan's latest MOMMY (2014), which has just freshly arrived. TOM AT THE FARM is Canadian prodigy and Cannes darling Xavier Dolan's fourth film, adapted from Michel Marc Bouchard's play, this marks the first time he is not the sole writer for his works, it is also a veer of style for him, delves into the murky suspense and violence of a psychological thriller, and notably, in its highly strained chasing-in-the-forest incident near the coda, it conspicuously recalls another exceptional gay-themed thriller Alain Guiraudie's STRANGERS BY THE LAKE (2013, 8/10) of the same year, but these two films end with two completely contrasting options for our protagonists who both face irresistible sexual attraction from the sort who is too dangerous for their own good.Sported as a perennially tacky curly blond, Dolan plays Tom, an urban advertisement editor who has just lost his boyfriend Guillaume in an accident. Driving en route to attend his funeral in a remote farm, Tom meets Guillaume's family members, his mother Agathe (Roy) and his brother Francis (Cardinal) who lives with her and whose existence has never been informed to Tom until now. On top of that, Agathe seems to be unwitting of Guillaume's sexual orientation, so Tom has to comfort her grievance by telling a white lie that Guillaume has a girlfriend named Sarah (Brochu), who in fact is just one of their common friends. Yet, Francis is the one who actually knows it all, his violent and homophobic behaviour towards Tom strikes a sadomasochistic thrill, which is not merely one-sided, as the film not-so- subtly implies Francis is a closeted homosexual himself. They both desperately or compulsively trace the resemblance or remnants of the deceased in each other, to the degree, Tom actually complies to act as a voluntary hostage on the farm and even enjoys the pastoral drudgery. One night Sarah's visit inopportunely provokes Agathe's deeply- buried agony, while apart from Francis' overcompensated interest in Sarah, Tom learns a horrible episode of his past from a bar owner, which overturns his perception of the tight corner where he is in. The second day, he decides to flee and turns his life back on track. Here, Dolan again plays the Aspect Ratio gimmick, in the scenes where Tom is physically abused by Francis, it changes from the usual 1.85:1 to a more smothering letterbox; and if one is familiar with his narcissistic disposition, here he continues to wallow in close-ups, mostly on himself especially when Tom is anguish-ridden or being suffocated to barely catch a breath under Francis' masculine domination. While the entire film is coherently enveloped in an overcast dreariness, the close-knitted cast (both Roy and Brochu are from the original play) has done an amazing job in establishing the engaging tensions and occasionally a smack of warmth glistening. Roy and Cardinal are the MVPs, the former is offered a soul-pulverising flare-up while being consistently emotive during all her presence, and the latter beefs up his boorish machismo with very disarming appeal which superbly gilds an atmosphere of ambiguity in Francis' deadly mystique; on top of that the two together also builds up a detrimental mother-son relationship, which also wittily insinuates what has happened to the mother in the end, it is an innovative modus operandi to justify the plot-line without revealing everything in front of viewer's eyes. As for our triple threat Dolan, with his Joker-alike makeup, he shows beyond doubt that apart from the ostentatious style bandwagon, he certainly is on his way to mature into a multi-faceted filmmaker who is able to tackle with the darkest corner of humanity and leaves his own trademark on it. A final nod to Dolan's cherrypick of songs, Rufus Wainwright's GOING TO A TOWN, appears in the ending credit, is an utterly poignant theme song for Tom's bumpy ride.

Red_Identity This was really something else. I had never seen a film from Xavier Dolan so I didn't know what to really expect, but this is that type of film that you're not sure just how good it really is, or if it even is good, but it's impossible to turn away. When all is said and done, its narrative is actually pretty thin, pretty simple, but it has a sort of intense, maddening tone with a bunch of scenes that come off both so weird and uncomfortable. Again, this makes it feel like a pretty distinctive experience, but once it's over the spell was sort of broken. It reminds me a lot of Stranger by the Lake in that regard, feels like it's great while watching it but after watching it you're not quite sure what you saw was of merit, but unlike that film, this one didn't leave such a bad taste in my mouth and was a lot more entertaining. Maybe not a great film, but a very interesting one at least, and it's pretty admirable that someone so young would do this. The last 15 minutes do take away a lot of its intrigue though.And maybe it says something about me, but I found Pierre Ives Cardinal so unbelievably sexy. So, so wrong but I just couldn't help it.

aaskillz69 "It's for you Sarah. It's all yours now, yes? Why not take the box? Why not do what you should do? Why not this sad? Why not run to his grave? Why not bring me flowers? Why didn't Tom speak at the church? Why i let my son visit me? Because he said he would call and write! What kind of accident was it? With whom was he? How was it when, where, how! Nobody dies at 25! Nobody, Nobody, Nobody!!!-AgatheWell last year when this premiered at Venice i was pretty interested in seeing what kind of buzz it would come out with, and the buzz was overall great, the Toronto buzz was also good and since then the movie as been on my watchlist. Before this one i had only seen two movies from Dolan those being "Laurence Anyways and "I Killed my Mother", i liked "Laurence" quite a bit but i was disappointed by "Mother" and non of those movies were really my cup of tea although something like Laurence Anyways was undeniably good. So i went in to Tom at the Farm reluctant but hopeful that it would be a worthy experience.Tom at the Farm is Directed by Xavier Dolan and it stars Xavier Dolan, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Lise Roy, Evelyne Brochu, Manuel Tadros and Jacques Lavallée. "The story of Tom, who is in the grip of grief and depression following the death of his lover. When he meets the family of the deceased, it is revealed the mother was not aware of her son's sexual orientation, or his relationship with Tom either, for that matter."It's been more than half a year and still only a few fortunate people have been able to see this movie, that hasn't even been released yet at the U.S. Tom at the Farm was well received, mostly positive reviews but i still get the feeling that this was Dolan's less applauded work and i got to say that i don't really understand why because Tom at the Farm might be my favorite of his. OK well it might not be the movie i enjoyed the most, maybe i enjoyed Laurence Anyways a bit more but i would probably say that this one is the one that audiences will find easier to watch . I found "I Killed my Mother" to be completely uninteresting and i was bored out of my mind and "Laurence Anyways" was a bit to long and Tom at the Farm does not have any of those problems. One of the problems i had with the previous two movies was to follow the narrative, it was a bit to abstract(probably not the right word) and it was hard to keep an interest in what was going on. But this doesn't happen here, i was actually surprised by how engaged and interested i was actually in the movie's plot.The movie follows the title role, Tom, and the movie begins with him crying clearly heartbroken and we soon get to see that someone who was close to him died. He drives into the country, into a farm where he breaks in to a house. We soon find out that there a lady and his son live there and that there is a family connection between Tom's lover and this family. The name of the lady was Agather and her son Francis and the person that died was Agathe's son(Guilahume) and Francis brother.No one was expecting Tom although he was his boyfriend, worst than that no one seems to know that Guilaume was gay. The only one that knew this was Francis his brother and he is a redneck motherf*cker and he is making sure that his mom is not going to know the truth and he says that a Sarah was dating him although she doesn't even go to the funeral.Tom seems to be in a difficult situation, he can't say the truth to Agathe but well something worst happens. Francis starts playing games with Tom, he wont let him get out of the farm, he will beat him and then treat him well. There is also some palpable sexual tension between the two. It's kind of weird but between the beating, and the dancing and the cow's birth Tom actually gets familiar with the farm and kind of fells in love with Francis.There is a lot going on at the same time. At times Tom tries desperately to get out of the farm and then later one saying that he loves the farm that there everything is really. We never really get a sense of Tom and Francis mental state they are both clearly disturbed, Tom seems to love and hate Francis at the same time and the same thing with Francis that seems to despise Tom and to heterosexual being proud of being on and then being sexually attracted to Tom. These physiological nuances make Tom at the Farm be a edge of the seat physiological thriller and a movie that is no doubt worth seeing.Technically the movie is also pretty great, the does look great and all the camera work and score really intensify the physiological instability of these characters. The acting is also great, Xavier Dolan not only proves to have some talent behind the cameras but also in front of the cameras, all the rest of the supporting cast is goo by the way. Overall i enjoyed Tom at the Farm much more than i was actually expecting to, good movie no doubt on that but i'm still reluctant in saying that i'm excited about this new comer Xavier DolanRating:B-

Dr. Tomatoe I've recently seen "Tom à la ferme", and it's safe to say that Xavier Dolan is one of the most important directors alive today. With just 25 years, he has proved to have the maturity and intelligence to make amazing films, which are not only magical in their visual aspect, but in the depth of their screenplays as well.Having said this, "Tom á la ferme" is no exception. Great movie, wonderful to see, and a very interesting story which is, as always, about love. However, every time Dolan shows us his vision of love, he does it in a very different way. This time is about a lost love, and the submissive aspect of it. Brilliant performances as always, all taking place in a very gloomy farm, the authorial work of Xavier Dolan just keeps getting better, so my advice: let's pay attention to this wonderful filmmaker.