Ciné queer - CLOSE TO YOU

In the organizer's words:

Sam has lived in Toronto for four years and hasn't been back to his home town of Cobourg since his transition. He is now heading there for his father's birthday. He is dreading the trip because the break-up didn't go well back then and because he doesn't feel like making stupid comments and getting hurt again. On the train home, he meets Katherine, an old friend from high school who is battling ghosts from the past herself - and still has deep feelings for Sam. (Salzgeber)

The movie is not content with addressing the various irritations and then benevolently clearing them out of the way. It is not interested in false conciliatory tones. However, it doesn't show up Sam's family either. The mother's helplessness is played just as empathetically as the father's more pragmatic approach. At the same time, it becomes understandable why Sam needed distance from the family - and why anger boils up in him when he is indirectly expected to accept the hostility of his brother-in-law Paul for the sake of family peace and simply "get over it". Elliot Page delivers an outstanding performance. The quick-wittedness and rebelliousness that he displayed in earlier roles and which rightly made him famous is still in him. There is also an impressive openness and vulnerability that makes Close to You a wonderful cinematic comeback. As the title suggests, the film lets us get very close - and demonstrates in the interactions between its characters how difficult it can be to come to terms with closeness. (Cinema Time)