Matthias (Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas) and Maxime (Xavier Dolan) are two lifelong friends in their late twenties living in Montreal. The motivated but uptight Matthias is a successful business worker with an attractive and caring girlfriend, Sarah, while the quieter, gentler Maxime is a bartender who spends time taking care of his abusive, alcoholic mother. Matthias is primed for a promotion at his job while Maxime is preparing to move to Australia for work opportunities.
The two take a trip to the lakeside cabin of a wealthy friend, Rivette. Rivette's pushy sister, Érika, is a film student and pressures Matthias and Maxime to be in her student film, as her two actors have dropped out. Maxime capitulates and agrees to appear in the project, and Matthias is later forced to join after losing a bet to Rivette. They are upset to later learn that their participation will require them to kiss, but their friends remind them that they had kissed before, years ago in school, which Matthias claimed was the result of him being under the influence of party drugs. Nevertheless, they share a kiss (offscreen) for the film.
The kiss has a profound, distracting effect on Matthias, who cannot sleep the next morning and goes for a swim, accidentally ending up on the wrong side of the lake; later, he turns down a job promotion and argues with Sarah. He is further unnerved when Erika shows the completed film at a get-together thrown by her mother, though Sarah seems to understand his conflicted feelings. Meanwhile, Maxime turns over care of his mother's estate to his aunt and tries to get a letter of recommendation from Matthias' father, who is a successful businessman in Chicago. Both men are further confused by the kiss due to their understood interest in women, and Matthias is especially upset because of his relationship with Sarah.
Matthias tries to get out of attending Maxime's party, apparently in denial that he will actually leave for Australia, but Sarah pushes for him to go. He upsets their friends by arriving late, making a poor speech for Maxime, and initially turning down the invitation for an afterparty with the rest of their friends, before Sarah convinces him to attend. At the afterparty, he further antagonizes the group by starting an argument during a party game and getting into a fight, culminating in insulting Maxime's facial birthmark. Matthias leaves the party angrily before returning and apologizing. After the night is over, he and Maxime share a kiss and a brief sexual encounter; but Matthias breaks away, leaving Maxime hurt and confused.
Later, Matthias goes to a strip club with a business associate before abruptly leaving to run through the streets. Maxime cleans out his house in preparation for moving, having discovered a childhood drawing of himself and Matthias living on a farm together, which touches him. He finally gets a call back from the office of Matthias's father, as he had inquired after his missing letter of recommendation; the secretary informs him that it was actually sent to Matthias, who had failed to forward it to him. Maxime realizes Matthias' state of denial and has the letter forwarded to his email directly. Ready to leave, Maxime departs his home to meet a friend who will take him to the airport, and sees that Matthias is there waiting for him as well.
In January 2018, it was announced that Dolan would write, direct, produce, and star in the film, alongside Anne Dorval.[4] In August 2018, it was announced Pier-Luc Funk and Micheline Bernard joined the cast of the film.[5][6] In September 2018, Gabriel D'Almeida Freitas, Antoine Pilon, Samuel Gauthier, Adib Alkhalidey, Catherine Brunet and Marilyn Castonguay joined the cast of the film.[7] In November 2018, Another Man magazine mentioned that Harris Dickinson had just finished filming with Dolan and would be co-starring in the film.[8]
Original soundtrack is composed by Jean-Michel Blais, a pianist and composer living in Montreal, Canada. His piano piece called "Solitude" was inspired, amongst other sources, by Franz Schubert's "Themes and Variations".[11] Blais was honoured on May 25, 2019, with the Cannes Soundtrack Award for his work in the film.[12]
The film had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on 22 May 2019.[14] In May 2020, Mubi acquired distribution rights to the film in the U.S, U.K, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America (excluding Mexico), and India.[15] It was released on Mubi on 28 August 2020.[16]
Reception
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 63% based on 78 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Matthias and Maxime enchants almost as much as it frustrates, although Xavier Dolan fans may appreciate seeing the writer-director working at a more restrained pitch."[17]Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 60 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[18]
