Solo

Sophie Dupuis's 2023 Canadian film follows Simon, a young drag performer beginning to appear on stage in Montreal. He carries two relationships at once: a wearing love with Olivier, whom he meets at the club, and a cold bond with his mother, who has returned after fifteen years. The subject is the search for approval. Simon expects the same thing from his lover and his mother and neither gives it; the narrative shows this not as a story of victimhood but as a repeated choice. The drag sequences carry the film's visual weight and were shot in real venues. Theodore Pellerin leads and performs most of the numbers himself. Dupuis builds the emotional violence inside the relationship in stages. Who it's for: those who like Quebec cinema and queer drama. Who it's not for: viewers who do not want to watch emotional abuse within a relationship; the film treats it in detail.