Sure Atom Egoyan is Canada's finest home-grown film-maker (as well as Cronenberg and McDonald) but the promise was there with Jean Claude-Lauzon. His first film, Night Zoo, was a very moody and stylish film about the seamy side of crime in Montreal. His second film, Leolo is a truly profound and remarkable film. Sadly, Lauzon died in a plane crash shortly after Leolo's release, but he left us with a film that has more heart, life and originality than 50 Hollywood films put together. Leolo is a stunning story (partially autobiographical) about a boy growing up in Montreal. His family is a deliciously dysfunctional family where mental illness is hereditary. Leolo, who fantasizes he isn't French but of Italian descent, decides to live his life before it's too late and he loses himself to insanity. The film is a prime example of independent film, showing us original, startling and haunting images time and time again. Yes, some of the material is a bit broad and hard to take, but damn it, that's what independent film is all about! Leolo is a masterpiece, plain and simple. Max Collin gives the finest child actor performance in film history as Leolo, a child too intelligent to be a child, too young to be an adult. This is a remarkable film, it deserves to be seen. A hard film to find outside of Canada (check Foreign sections in video stores) but well worth the search. It's a shame Lauzon died after only his second film. I'm sure his career would have been filled with many more amazing films, but let us be thankful he left us Leolo, and let us honor his legacy for it.
Review of Leolo
