Nothing but a prestige piece for a fictional character with inexplicable iconoclasm and half-baked coming-of-age schmaltz that tries really hard - and fails - to pluck at the heart strings. This is a fairly major misfire for Dolan.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Sep 1, 2021

Man this thing flounders. My only thought at its end was what, pray tell, was the point of all this?

Full Review | Jul 14, 2021

These moments lead us to Dolan the pedant, whose explicit articulation of ideas obscures a career-long attention to character and form.

Full Review | Jul 29, 2020

With just a little streamlining [the film] might have zipped by in a brisk, poignant hour and a half. At over two hours, it goes straight to the Dead Letter Department.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 29, 2020

It's far from perfect, but still manages to be a fascinating attempt at exploring sexual identity, isolation and the consequences of fame.

Full Review | Jan 7, 2020

Convoluted gay-identity drama drags; drug abuse, smoking.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 19, 2019

Its spectacularity is almost asphyxiating, but... each frame is also an excuse to plunge into the euphoria of its drama. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 18, 2019

"The Death and Life of John F. Donovan" is a potentially powerful story, though one not successfully told in the slightest by Xavier Dolan.

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Dec 14, 2019

Intended as a complex examination of the emotional toll of celebrity, this drama instead feels as shallow and pretentious as the characters it portrays.

Full Review | Dec 13, 2019

From its contrived structure to its forced speechifying, this story... never acquires the emotional potency or coherence its themes demand.

Full Review | Dec 12, 2019

In any case, what remains of John F. Donovan is a barely coherent mess, and so eager for your approval that it's hard to feel anything but sorry for it.

Full Review | Original Score: C- | Dec 11, 2019

Dolan's most conventional film, and consequently the dullest. [Full review in French]

Full Review | Aug 28, 2019

Even for someone like me who admires Dolan, the finished film is a bit of a mess. But it's kind of a beautiful mess, one that still has the power to be affecting.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Aug 23, 2019

The three-story narrative is the film's biggest misstep, by giving short shrift to what should have been the whole point of the film - the titular "death and life" of the main character.

Full Review | Aug 23, 2019

A film with a fair bit to like within its shaggy, unwieldy construction, but not enough to outweigh the fact that Dolan's latest is an unqualified mess.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Aug 21, 2019

As flawed as it is, the film occasionally shines through its gloomy atmosphere with an attempt at defining the unfair cost of passion.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 6, 2019

The hottest mess at #TIFF18.

Full Review | May 21, 2019

What this needs is cohesion and a greater insight into the actions and outcomes he traces. And, most importantly, it needs far more heart than what is ultimately there. A Dolan film without the heart is about as disappointing as you can get.

Full Review | Sep 21, 2018

Even at their most tonally awkward and clumsily soundtracked, Dolan's films can't help but be watchable, the phoniness of the hopped-up style melting away in the face of his performers' commitment to going all the way.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 18, 2018

A baffling screenplay in which all the characters speak in the same, pretentious voice, stylistically vapid direction and non-existent drama add up to a fatal verdict.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 17, 2018