Somewhere between the Full Metal Jacket by Stanley Kubrick and the Good work by Claire Denis is this intense initiation story, where a lost soul seeking meaning in its existence decides to follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming a soldier.
Youth in search of benchmarks thus builds an identity by renewing the model of patriarchy, adhering to its rules of order, discipline, submission and obedience. But once betrayed, abused and dismissed from the front, the heroine victim will struggle to rebuild herself.
Written by Cynthia Tremblay, Wars remains in phase with the previous and excellent short film by its filmmaker Nicolas Roy. Presented at Cannes in 2011, It’s nothing was already a dark and oppressive journey to the end of the night, mixed with wandering, loneliness and the latent desire for confrontation.
A work inscribed in the most opaque darkness. Like this first minimalist and austere feature film, a little too much, moreover. The rigid staging, the stiff rhythm and the abstraction of the situations somehow end up keeping the viewer away.
However, a feeling of unease does not take long to set in. A palpable tension that transmits the fluid and organic editing. Editor at Denis Côté, Nicolas Roy refines his art here by going to the essential, favoring the breathing of bodies to the explanation of words.
However, the company’s success rests on the shoulders of Éléonore Loiselle, whose physical and emotional investment allowed her to be crowned best actress in Karlovy Vary. The unforgettable actress of The goddess of fire flies and of Derivative offers another striking composition, mingled with strength and vulnerability. In front of her stands David La Haye, more inhabited than ever as an insidious symbol of toxic masculinity.
By multiplying internal and external struggles in fragile and unknown terrain, Wars (the s takes on its full importance) is far from an easy movie. It also deserves a certain investment from the cinephile. Its ambiguity, the devotion of its protagonist and its themes rarely dealt with in the cinema, however, win support. No one will come out of this battlefield unscathed.
In theaters this Friday and on Crave from November 21
Consult the film schedule
Drama
Wars
Nicolas roy
With Éléonore Loiselle, David La Haye, Fanny Mallette
1 h 24