Xavier Dolan Addresses His Critics

Watch the full interview from The Filmmakers, which finds the young director at his most candid.

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"When I watch I Killed My Mother, I see another person," Dolan says in the above interview, excerpted from this past weekend's episode of The Filmmakers. "I see another artist...I didn't know how to do things, and I had seen very few films."

Whatever Dolan may think of his own first film, it's hard not to be blown away it, even eight years later. Written when he was just 16 years old, the funny, heartbreaking portrait of a son — played by Dolan himself — at odds with his overbearing mother (portrayed by Anne Dorval) more than deserves its place in the canon of extraordinary debuts from filmmakers of any age.

The film also has the distinction of launching the career of one of Canada's most iconic filmmakers. Now 28, Dolan has had made six award-winning feature films, with his first in English in the works — The Death and Life on John F. Donovan, featuring the likes of Jessica Chastain, Susan Sarandon and Natalie Portman. Along the way, he's also waged a bit of a war with certain film critics who he feels have unfairly targeted him, particularly on social media.

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Xavier Dolan Addresses His Critics
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