The glittering “Solo” centers on Simon (Théodore Pellerin), a charming 20-something making a name for himself as a drag queen in Montreal. Simon’s life is glamorous and filled with loving support from the other performers who work at his nightclub; and from his family, particularly his older sister, Maude (Alice Moreault), his confidante and a costume designer who makes dresses for Simon’s drag alter ego, the blonde bombshell Glory Gore.
The third collaboration between Pellerin and the writer-director Sophie Dupuis (“Family First”), the film takes a turn from its blissful beginnings when Simon, starry-eyed and tragically naïve, opens his heart to questionable figures. His mother, Claire (Anne-Marie Cadieux), a famous opera singer who abandoned the family years ago to pursue her career, re-enters Simon’s life. Then there’s the gaslighter, Olivier (Félix Maritaud), a new queen at the club whom Simon starts dating.
Bitter disappointments and cruel manipulations seem to conspire to dim Simon’s light and idealism — his mother proves distant and superficial, cutting their meet ups laughably short. Then Olivier isolates Simon from his family, takes credit for his rise in the drag scene and smothers his confidence.
Simon’s drag performances, captured with sumptuous visuals, are peppered throughout these intrigues, allowing us to register his anxieties through the lens of his act. Before an audience, the tensions between him and Olivier, with whom he performs as a duo, are magnified; so is the agitation caused by his mother, his artistic role model, when she finally attends one of his shows.
“Solo” is a subtle snapshot into a gay man’s profound yet familiar upheavals. Simon’s drag spectacles may be intentionally fierce and operatic, but there’s something refreshing about this drama’s intimate scale and lack of interest in sweeping tragedies, especially in the context of queer cinema.
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