Review of Léolo (1992) by Joseph H — 16 Jan 2012

A young boy is brought up in a poor Montreal housing development through an extremely dysfunctional family. He discovers that he was not born to his French father but an Italian man, for which he changes his name from Leo to Leolo.

I assume that French-Canadian director Jean Claude Lauzon wanted to do a film through the eyes of young boy, like Ingmar Bergman did with "Fanny and Alexander" and people liked this movie. After a while, I found it repellent.

Starts off haunting but degenerates into scenes of nauseation and utter stupidity, which include a psychotic grandfather that lives with the family after attempting to kill Leolo years before; the carcass of a dead dog floating in the river (assumingly the St.

Lawrence); the abuse of a cat; and a family business of defecating, with the assistance of laxatives. Characters all around are unappealing and the result is unpleasant. Really nasty film goes from interesting character study to trashy, relentless footage.

Note: we also get to see the grandfather naked, in which a mass of soap strategically covers a specific part of the body!