Tom at the Farm

Following critical controversy and accusations of narcissism, Xavier Dolan’s latest film, Tom at the Farm, has wrong-footed some of his harshest critics, and it has proved that his cinematic range is far beyond initial expectations. There can be no better recommendation than that.

Tom at the Farm is the fourth film that 25-year-old Dolan has directed (a statistic which might, by the way, excuse any residual narcissism), and is by far his best yet. It tells the story of Tom, a young gay urban male who leaves the city to attend the funeral of his former boyfriend. He quickly gets caught up in the sinister machinations of his boyfriend’s family and, finding himself lost in a mysterious farm in the middle of nowhere, the film quickly takes on a disorienting, strange and violent turn. 

The camera style and artful creation of suspense have prompted comparisons with Hitchcock from more or less every critic. And the soundtrack has been widely noted for its Bernard Herrmann-esque menace (Herrmann being the composer of soundtracks for films like Psycho, Vertigo and North by North West). 

In fact, it seems a little perverse that the critics so ready to condemn him for his narcissism, are now feeding his ego with such rapturous praise. Well, if he's only just managed to overcome his narcissism, he's sure to fall back into it after this film, so why not go and see him at his peak.