chimpiki
One thing I'll say about Leolo is that you definitely won't forget it. Thankfully, though, and quite necessarily, I'm not limited to that single sentence. Love it or hate it, this is an experience that will stick with you, and which over time will most likely come up on the positive side of your filmgoing experiences. The film's protagonist, Leolo Lauzon, is a young French Canadian boy who claims to be a son of Italy, a notion he accredits to a miraculous encounter between his mother and a tomato grown in Italy. He is the youngest in his family, and at that stage in his life, he is also the most sane. In his spare time, he escapes the daily dysfunction of growing up by writing eloquently on scraps of paper, which he then discards, and which are then read by a local homeless man: the texts serve as the film's narration. Though essentially a story about growing up, this is a film that can be read from many angles, and whose thematic depths span everywhere between the themes of family, fear, hate, lust, and love. Yet, in spite of its broadness, the film manages to be simultaneously and paradoxically intimate, epic, far-fetched, and spot-on.I watched this movie under the pretext that it was either THE best, or at least ONE of the best Canadian films ever made, and so my expectations were quite high. The other film that holds claim to this distinction is called "Mon Oncle Antoine," directed by Claude Jutra, and which I highly recommend. That film is the type you can watch and reflect on with an immediate love that will never wane over the passage of time. Leolo, on the other hand, is like a scape on the knee: at first it's painful and unpleasant, but soon it builds and forms into a scab that you find satisfying to pick. Excuse the obscurity of that analogy, but if you watch the film I think you'll find that it applies quite nicely.Some might find Leolo alienating, others revolting, and some just plane weird. Personally, I recommend that you turn off your internal "parental discretion" metre, and just watch this film for what it is, which at times is the most visceral, human, and beautifully shot films you are likely to witness. In terms of cinematic indulgence, it might have a few equals, but there are none that do it better. Initially, I rated this movie a 4/10, feeling as though it was terribly overrated, but you know what? It grew on me. I find that on a fairly regular basis, this movie and particular scenes enter my mind, and they do so for all the right reasons. I find this odd, as many of the movies I claim to love do not do this very same thing, which I think says a lot about the substance and strength of this film. It tells me that the moments that might be considered exploitive or overly-explicit, and maybe even illegal, are there for more than mere shock. In closing, I simply have to implore you to watch this film, and though you may rue the experience the first time, take my word for it that you won't regret it, though that might take a few weeks.
ccthemovieman-1
What an odd story. It was a good one for the first two-thirds of the film but the last third got so sick - at least to me and what little standards I possess, it lost favor with me. I got rid of it for that reason: overall - just too sick and too strange.It gets ugly because a 12-year-old kid, whom the story is centered around, starts to lose it. He tries to kill his uncle, begins using way too much profanity, and says and does things that no 12-year-old boy would say/do. The story just gets out of hand. Everyone in this film except the boy's mother is very odd with most of them winding up in a mental institution. I often laugh at dark humor but this is way too black, way too dark. People think Hollywood is morally bankrupt....well, the rest of the world, especially in the film-making business, is worse and this is a prime example.
eatpastry
I missed the first 30 minutes of this travesty but what i did see was sick, disgusting, vulgar and worst of all....pointless and unfunny. i can appreciate sick, weird and even vulgar---but what was the point? & was it supposed to be funny? the kid screwing a cat? i mean, what was that? the 2 scrawny 9yr olds having "sex" w/ the fat lady in the dirty alley. gross. the kid trying to hang his grandfather in the bathtub--& the conclusion to that incident was.......???? nothing. life just went on like it never happened & where the hell was the grandfather? it was like each scene was merely for shock value and i hate when movies try hard to shock. oh & the corny french guy & his poetic narrations that tried to make every scene sound prophetic was enough to get the eyes rolling. & the ending w/ the kid under the bed? what was that all about? then the movie ends with the cheezy french guy going on about how funny life is sometimes. come on. the only good thing i saw in the movie was the hunky muscular older brother who walked around in a wife-beater & undies. his little brother was a total perv and annoying to boot. i wish they'd shown more of his hunky brother. this movie gets the big thumbs down....except for the muscleboy. peace OUT!
alvarez8621
OK I saw this film in my Canadian Film class last week and I thought it was horrible! I am a very open minded person when it comes to movies, but I don't know what to do with this one. Leolo was disturbing and the end made little to no sense. There are characters added at the end who have no need being there, no is the end explained well. I was told it was a beautiful little film prior to seeing it, but I saw no beauty, I only saw an obsession with feces and other bodily functions. I was revolted and by the end was terribly disappointed and unfulfilled. It was the worst film by far that was screened in the class and I will never get one image/sound out of my head for a long time. That scene with the cat is the most useless and out of place scene I have ever been witness to, not to mention the most disturbing. I give Leolo a 2 out of 10.
