Two 13-year-old boys spend an idyllic summer together, but their connection is put to the test when they become the subject of speculation at school.
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- badelfon TMDB · Jul 20269/10
Summary: 9/10: A tender, devastating examination of how homophobia and toxic masculinity destroy male intimacy, anchored by extraordinary performances from Eden Dambrine and Gustav De Waele that make the film's tragedy feel both intimate and unbearably universal. There's a moment early in Lukas Dhont's Close when thirteen-year-old Léo and Rémi race their bicycles through fields of flowers in the Belgian countryside, laughing, utterly unselfconscious, bound by the kind of friendship so total it doesn't require explanation. They share a bed during sleepovers, have private jokes only they understand, exist in each other's orbit with the ease of brothers who chose each other rather than being born into obligation. Then they arrive at school, and someone asks if they're a couple. What happens next is a powerful condemnation of bullying disguised as innocent curiosity, of homophobia disguised as teasing, of toxic masculinity so pervasive that thirteen-year-olds already understand its brutal grammar. Léo, played with devastating restraint by first-time actor Eden Dambrine, begins to distance himself from Rémi. Not cruelly, not all at once, but with the quiet violence of someone learning t
Read the whole review on TMDB - PlutoZooon TMDB · Aug 202310/10
I don't rate a film 10/10 unless it's wonderful and my reviews tend to be motivated by either abject disappointment or outright admiration. I think that's very much most people's experience of film, you either love it or you don't. With Close, there's everything to love and it is an exercise in pure love, not just in its storyline but also the art of film, acting and storytelling. Importantly. It is akin to a dissection, an expert analysis of youth told through the eyes of two boys in tremendous pain. It is nuanced and a near savant, perceptive commentary on the predjudices cultivated within the human predicament from the very outset. It captures perfectly how instilled bigotry dessicates pure innocence from the moment a child sets foot into wider society via the educational system and it is a damning indictment of what we've become or failed to become, more accurately. The storyline shows how deep rooted prejudice can destroy a pure and innocent love between two boys, and it perfectly contrasts how the insipid and evil innuendo from female quarters feeds into to the outright violent machismo in male quarters, together combining to destroy the boys' idea of what their friendship wa
Read the whole review on TMDB - CinemaSerfon TMDB · Oct 20227/10
Thirteen year old "Léo" (Eden Dambrine) and his schoolfriend "Rémi" (Gustav De Waele) are inseparable. The play together, eat together, sleep together - an ideal fraternal relationship. At school, though, their classmates start to make disparaging remarks about them, and the naturally more gregarious "Léo" begins to shun his friend a little, then a little more... Tragedy ensues after "Rémi" doesn't show up for a school trip and the repercussions hit the young "Léo" and "Sophie" (Émilie Dequenne) - the mother of his friend - especially hard. On one level this film is about cruelty. Not a deliberate, malevolent style of cruelty - but one of indifference, of ignorance - a bully's sort of cruelty. On another it is a story of love, loyalty - betrayal even. It is an highly emotional film with two excellent performances from the young boys conveying their respective responses to a bewildering array of suspicion and judgements being thrust their way by those who knew no better - but should have. It's about parenting, about openness and about how people deal with tragedy in their own, personal way - and it is very effective. It really does leave a lump in your throat afterwards. Well worth
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Cast
- Eden DambrineLéo
- Gustav De WaeleRémi
- Émilie DequenneSophie
- Léa DruckerNathalie
- Igor van DesselCharlie
- Kevin JanssensPeter
- Marc WeissYves
- Léon BatailleBaptiste
- Serine AyariCéline
- Robin KeyaertThomas
Crew
- Lukas DhontDirector
- Lukas DhontWriter
- Angelo TijssensWriter
- Frank van den EedenDirector of Photography
- Valentin HadjadjOriginal Music Composer
- Alain DessauvageEditor
- Dirk ImpensProducer
- Michiel DhontProducer
- Michel Saint-JeanProducer
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