Review of Blue Is the Warmest Color (2013) by Nick O — 20 Dec 2013

We may unfortunately have had to pay it due mind in the media, but don't let the controversy surrounding "Blue Is the Warmest Color" skew your views of the film itself any. I can't lend voice to whatever occurred between actresses AdÃÃ,¨le Exarchopoulos and Là (C)a Seydoux and director Abdellatif Kechiche in making "Blue", but I can certainly breathe a sigh of relief there was a damn great movie to be fought over in the epic ordeal after all. Hardcore lesbian action. An NC-17 rating. A sprawling three hours of flirty, ephemeral airs. "Blue Is the Warmest Color" isn't a slab of smooth granite; it's a rock, meaning jagged emotional daggers and all. Only instead of being stagnant it still moves, without a hint of redundancy or boredom. And with the sublime Exarchopoulos at the center -- walking a tough, fine-lined sexual tightrope as AdÃÃ,¨le, a high-schooler who becomes fiercely attracted to older, blue-haired art student Emma (a downright marvelous Seydoux) -- "Blue Is the Warmest Color" dances splendidly to the beat of love and life, but speaks ultimately to the profound intellectual consequences of the narrative event.

Kechiche never drops the ball. Once. The remaining runtime acceding the buzzy moments of lovemaking (the most electrifying I've seen in recent memory) has AdÃÃ,¨le and Emma's relationship tested by time and age. Flashes of where Xavier Dolan's otherwise rapturous "Laurence Anyways" lost me from earlier in 2013 came to mind. But unlike that film, which looked to impress above all but the entirety of whose parts failed to really connect, "Blue" is hot to the touch. Exarchopulos and Seydoux give two of the most incredible performances of the year, in a movie that defines the notion of filmmaking as a form of artistic expression. Don't berate Kechiche for holding you close to the fire. First romance may not always be true, but his movie is, which burns brightest by taking it slow. (96/100).