Film

Photo: Courtesy

‘Heartbeats/Les amours imaginaires’

If you were among those who were utterly blown away by young gay French-Canadian filmmaker/writer/actor Xavier Dolan’s directorial debut “I Killed My Mother,” then you’ll be happy to learn that the film was no fluke. His second movie “Heartbeats” is an equally original and engaging film.

The relationship of best friends Marie (Monica Chokri), who is straight, and Francis a.k.a. Frankie (Dolan), who is gay, is put to the test when they become involved in a potentially lethal romantic triangle. At a dinner party, the BFFs come in contact with self-satisfied blond Adonis Nicolas (Niels Schneider), a country lad studying literature at McGill University and making his way in Montreal.

From “Country Strong.” – Photo: Courtesy

Country wrong is more like it. How Shana Feste, writer/director of the powerful “The Greatest,” can be responsible for this Southern-fried fiasco is a mystery. A cheap patchwork quilt of a flick, with sewn together swatches of “A Star Is Born,” “Crazy Heart,” “Dreamgirls” and “All About Eve,” “Country Strong” is thoroughly weak.

A scene with actor Josh Duhamel from gay director Greg Berlati’s “Life as We Know It.” – Photo: Courtesy

Out director Greg Berlanti’s new movie “Life As We Know It” (WB) starts off as a traditional, goofy romantic comedy, but then takes a sharp turn. Mismatched couple Messer (Josh Duhamel) and Holly (Katherine Heigl) are set up on a disastrous blind date by best friends Alison (Christina Hendricks) and Peter (Hayes MacArthur). Nevertheless, Messer and Holly are thrown together over the years, at Alison and Peter’s wedding and the birthday party of their daughter Sophie. Messer and Holly are even Sophie’s godparents and guardians, which doesn’t mean anything until Alison and Peter are killed in a car accident. Messer and Holly must take on new roles as Sophie’s caretakers in spite of their dislike for each other.