Xavier Dolan’s 2019 Cannes Drama ‘Matthias & Maxime’ Finally Lands U.S. Distribution
More than a year since the film competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan‘s latest feature “Matthias & Maxime” has finally landed a distributor. Arthouse streaming and distribution service Mubi has landed VOD and TV rights to the coming-of-age drama in the United States, the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (excluding Mexico), and India, and will premiere the film for audiences this summer. A release date is forthcoming.
“Matthias & Maxime” stars Harris Dickinson (breakout from Eliza Hittman’s “Beach Rats”), Gabriel D’Almeida Freitas, Dolan regular Anne Dorval, Pier-Luc Funk, and Dolan himself, who hasn’t starred in one of his own films since 2013’s “Tom at the Farm.” “Matthias & Maxime” (played by D’Almeida Freitas and Dolan) focuses on two men in their late 20s whose friendship changes after they’re asked to kiss for a student short.
In his positive Cannes review, IndieWire’s David Ehrlich wrote, “In a film with an erratic structure that often works against it — that’s wound too tight by its ticking clock of a story, and doesn’t resolve with the oomph needed to sell its tear-jerking climactic scenes — the music can often be counted on to come to the rescue. Even if ‘Matthias & Maxime’ resolves into something more sincere than it is involving, Dolan’s film makes the case that a little sincerity can go a long way, especially between two men who are dangerously close to opting for a lifetime of regret over a moment of unabashed honesty.”
Dolan isn’t a stranger to waiting patiently for his films to find a distributor in the United States. His 2013 “Tom at the Farm” took two years to make it to the U.S. Last winter his “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan” finally premiered stateside more than a year after its premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. That film, which underwent a lengthy post-production process before bowing at TIFF, earned poor reviews, while “Matthias & Maxime” has been heralded as a return to form.
Last year, Dolan boosted his profile as an actor with a brief appearance in “IT: Chapter Two,” in the film’s opening scene as the victim of a hate crime.
