The TIFF Lowdown: In Montreal, twentysomething Léo (Pier-Luc Funk) delivers pizza and gets drunk, and that’s pretty much it. He’s alone and he’s sad, and doing nothing about it … until he meets Rita (Marianne Fortier), a sweet-natured musician who thinks he might be a keeper. The thing is, Léo is already taken; he’s just been targeted by an alien (François Papineau) who preys on Montreal’s lonely and alienated men and doesn’t much care if Léo’s luck has turned. With their first feature film, long-time collaborators (and real-life partners) Marie-Hélène Viens and Philippe Lupien are performing a radical genre experiment, mashing up P.T. Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love (TIFF ’02) and Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin (TIFF ’13) to create a new hybrid lifeform.
Reaction: The premise for YOU ARE NOT ALONE is a very weird one, and even though I’m not sure I agree with the program description of PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE and UNDER THE SKIN (it’s more the latter than the former), this is really a romantic comedy/sci-fi parable of manners. I especially loved the connection between Leo and Rita; both actors have incredibly strong chemistry and their connection is very believable….all the while Leo is being “stalked” by a mysterious character where the movie also has serious undertones. That it also has a small part by Roch Voisine (!), playing himself (!), is just icing on the cake. This is such a solid indie from Quebec and not really sure how much of an audience it has outside of the province, but this Western Canadian totally loved it and would love to see it again.
Thanks to TIFF Media for assistance with this reaction article. This is one of the many movies playing at TIFF this year. For more information, point your browser to www.tiff.net!