It also the viewer a powerful image of its central pair, twisted and hopelessly attached to each other, finishing the film ready to embark on another self-destructive, obsessive fling.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 7, 2024

If you missed Quebec queer-boy auteur Xavier Dolan's first feature I Killed My Mother, don't pass on his Cannes-heralded follow-up...

| Jun 8, 2020

A devastating exploration of the complexities and absurdities of love.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 5, 2019

[Director Xavier Dolan's] got an unquestionably terrific eye but a bit of a tin ear for dialogue, and continues to shoot himself in loving close-up, a detriment.

| Nov 17, 2018

So it doesn't cut it as a tale of erotic desperation, but stylistically? Tediously pretentious, padded out as it is with slo-mo sequences that are neither moody nor relevant and young people delivering overwritten speeches about love.

| Aug 31, 2018

Though intermittently engaging, the contents seem both overcooked and undernourishing.

| Sep 28, 2017

May be the most raw and visceral cinematic portrayal of infatuation I've ever seen, with nearly every shot conveying aching, unrequited desire.

| Original Score: B+ | Aug 31, 2011

In Dolan, the hipster crowd might well have found their latest poster boy.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 14, 2011

Who knew being young, beautiful and hip could be so tedious?

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 6, 2011

It's likeable enough, though there's far too much slow motion.

| May 28, 2011

A subtle and painfully amusing battle of wills.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 27, 2011

Lushly, not to say swishly made, the whole thing is really just a pseudo-poetic trifle.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | May 27, 2011

There is something rather flimsy about Heartbeats. That said, it certainly shows that Dolan has quite a career ahead of him.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 26, 2011

Hipster's delight.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 26, 2011

Every frame is a joy to look at, and the three leads very appealing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 26, 2011

Ultimately, Dolan's image-led central characters and their shallow, bitchy concerns won't appeal to everyone, but those who've experienced l'amour fou themselves will find plenty to enjoy.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 26, 2011

Dolan has a gift but he hasn't fully unwrapped it.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 25, 2011

It can seem as if style is all in Dolan's films, but as well as revelling in its pleasures, they also dissect its limitations - sometimes without anaesthetic.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 25, 2011

Opening with a recurring set of interviews with love scorned young people, Heartbeats lays down a tonne of 20-something sarcasm communicated through tongue-clicks, snide smirks and eye-rolls galore.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 25, 2011

Sumptuously photographed and elegantly stylised, Heartbeats' exterior is as seductive as Schneider's R-Pattzalike. Dig beneath the surface, though, and there ain't much there.

| Original Score: 3/5 | May 23, 2011