Sophie Dupuis’s ‘Solo’ brilliantly explores the battle between the internal and the external sense of self through Simon’s artistic passion and his electric performances and artistry. Every performance Simon crafts, and every outfit he wears, symbolises the internal struggle he is confronting and the external need to maintain an image of calmness, control, and strength until we reach a point where cracks finally show.
As William Shakespeare wrote in As You Like It, “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players; they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages”. We all perform during our lives, crafting a multitude of performances that may or may not reflect our internal reality. Directed by Sophie Dupuis, Solo is about the many performances that define us, whether fashioned through love, art, insecurities or a need for self-protection.
Simon, played by the outstanding Théodore Pellerin, is a talented young drag queen on the Montreal gay scene, and he is about to face a personal crossroad he can’t ignore; the trouble is, he isn’t yet ready to accept that he needs to change his performance.
On the face of it, Simon is happy; he loves his drag alter ego and is proud of the artistry and talent he brings to the club he calls home, alongside a troupe of drag queens who love, care and support each other. He has a close and loving relationship with his sister, Maude (Alice Moreault), who makes him fabulous dresses for his act. At the same time, his dad and step-mum are supportive and passionate about his chosen career on stage, his social life is busy, and his pride and passion are always on display for all to see. Plus, a new drag queen freshly arrived from Paris, the vivacious Olivier (Félix Maritaud), might be the ‘one’ lover he has long been looking for.
Simon is a consummate performer who has crafted his public and private image over many years. But as his relationship with Olivier develops, Simon knows that it is becoming both controlling and toxic. However, their success performing together is too good to give up, and he fears being solo again. He deep down also knows that his world-famous soprano mother (Anne-Marie Cadieux) has never been interested in him or his sister, a fact his sister openly expresses, much to his frustration. Yet, he has built so much of his image on his mother’s artistic success that he has to believe she is part of him and he is part of her. How long can Simon maintain the performance that his new relationship is perfect and his mother genuinely cares, before the cracks begin to show?
Dupuis brilliantly explores the battle between the internal and the external sense of self through Simon’s artistic passion and his electric performances and artistry. Every performance Simon crafts, and every outfit he wears, symbolises the internal struggle he is confronting and the external need to maintain an image of calmness, control, and strength until we reach a point where cracks finally show. It is here where the understated elegance and emotional power of Théodore Pellerin’s performance shine brighter than a sequin dress caught in the beam of a spotlight. Add Maritaud’s electric performance as the duplicitous Olivier, whose initial heartwarming, creative and loving persona slowly morphs into something far more manipulative and toxic, and a truly outstanding ensemble cast, and the stage is set for Simon’s epiphany that two performances must face their final curtain, one relating to a mother and the other a partner.
In exploring the dance between manipulation, artistry, and deceit, Sophie Dupuis’s screenplay holds echoes of Ira Sachs’ Passages alongside complex discussions on the psychology of performance found in many of François Ozon’s films. Yet this dramatic power is also combined with the colour, celebration and floor-filling needle drops of movies like Priscilla Queen of the Desert. The result is a film alive with the vibrant energy of Montreal’s gay scene, yet full of shadows when the spotlight fades. Solo is a film where the final scenes feel more like a beginning than an end, as an old performance is discarded and a new one crafted in a movie that demonstrates why Dupuis and Pellerin are two of the most exciting French-Canadian creatives working today.
Solo is playing in cinemas nationwide from September 19.
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