Description

Story of a young boy growing up in a dysfunctional family as he struggles to come of age within the confines of an East Montreal tenement. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Perverse, deep and difficult to forget
Do not believe the boxcover that portrays this as a delightful comedy about sexual curiosity! Leolo is much darker than that.
Here we find a gritty life through the eyes of a youngster who happens to be a bit of a magical realist. Some moments are witty, such as the imagined story of his conception while others are downright awkward and painful.
What I liked best about the movie were the several thematic areas it covered in a symbolic and mythical fashion. It addresses an individual's and family's psychological disintegration, the status of the urban underclass, & sexuality. It also portrays the boy, leolo, as a sort of magical escapist messiah for his hopeless family.
Leolo also happens to be one of only two films I have seen where a piece of raw liver is violated. (warning for the squeemish) If you are in any way prudish, do avoid this film.
In summary, this is an excellent & deep film for viewing with friends if you care to stimulate a strong discussion.

A top notch, very black comedy from Montreal.
An extraordinary black comedy set in Montreal. Leolo (a manufactured name) is a just slightly pre-pubescent boy who claims that only his dreams are sane and that he is the product of a very offbeat conception between an imported tomato and his mother. Trying to find his own reality, the main character narrates us into a surrealistic and somehow disturbing but yet very funny working of this his mind. As the young man begins to experience his own sexuality, we begin to see bits of reference to Phillip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint and with a film style which pays deference to Louis Malle's works, we become transported into a richly woven fabric of life in the blue collar neighborhood of Montreal. Beautifully acted, with a very good film score and the characteristic high quality of the "National Film Board of Canada" releases, Leolo is highly recommended to those who enjoy black comedy and fine cinema. English subtitles.

Caution to those who are hurting
The movie is a work of pure genius as it goes into the subconscious mind of a sensitive boy in terrible psychological anguish, raised by people with no ability to love.
Dangerously obsessive, perhaps psychotic, parents are raising their children as if they were less than animals. One by one we see the children losing touch with reality as their only coping mechanism.
For the duration of the movie, we are hoping that our hero Leolo will beat the odds.
This movie is best seen by professionals in the fields of psychiatry and psychology and too strong for sensitive people who are not.

A sensitive, beautiful, and extremely poetic film.
Leolo

This is a dark comedy that has much in common with the wonderful French film by Patrice LeConte entitled The Hairdresser's Husband. Certainly the two films are in the same genre. The film is a backwards and forwards look at the life of a gifted young lad named Leo, unlucky enough to be born a Silk Purse in a family of Sow's Ears, to complete the metaphor. Leo has the soul of a poet, and we hear his exquisite thoughts weaving the film together. The voice-overs are in French, of course, which makes them even more beautiful.

Leo is a dreamer, and his story is about the importance of dreams, and of love. The film is full of premonitions and gives many clues about events to come. It's a journey into the agonies and longings and ordeals of coming-of-age, but it's also much more. It's at times zany, playful, tragic, poetic, pensive, and thoughtful. It's filled with contrasts: innocence and depravity, sweetness and brutality, melancholy and etheriality, images of beauty and squalor, picturesque, warm vistas of Sicily and the cold starkness of tenements in Canada, a loving family cavorting on a Sunday outing and the craziness existing within that same family, just to name a few. The wonderful sensitivity and beautiful poetic quality of this film are exquisite to savor. It is a film that takes its time to tell its story, and finding that wonderful quality in a film is a true delight. So many films made in this country and in the world are compacted into staccato images that hit one's psyche like a machine gun. This one lingers on the images it presents, and imparts its message in its own time, on its own terms, and in its own unique way.

This is a film that needs to be seen more than once. It's complex and deep and wide-ranging and ambitious in scope. It's full of many-sided emotions and it's about more than just what happens in the plot. Purchase it, and savor it, and contemplate the wonderfully told story of a truly amazing life. Highly, highly recommended!!

SICK, SICK, SICK
As a cat lover, who had not read a review of this atrocity, I was appalled at the torture of the poor animal in this film. I can't help but wish the director had been hanged above his bathtub instead ofthe lecherous grandfather character. Can't comment on the film after the cat torture scene as that is when I pulled it from the VCR and smashed the tape with a ball peen hammer. ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Perverse, deep and difficult to forget
Do not believe the boxcover that portrays this as a delightful comedy about sexual curiosity! Leolo is much darker than that.
Here we find a gritty life through the eyes of a youngster who happens to be a bit of a magical realist. Some moments are witty, such as the imagined story of his conception while others are downright awkward and painful.
What I liked best about the movie were the several thematic areas it covered in a symbolic and mythical fashion. It addresses an individual's and family's psychological disintegration, the status of the urban underclass, & sexuality. It also portrays the boy, leolo, as a sort of magical escapist messiah for his hopeless family.
Leolo also happens to be one of only two films I have seen where a piece of raw liver is violated. (warning for the squeemish) If you are in any way prudish, do avoid this film.
In summary, this is an excellent & deep film for viewing with friends if you care to stimulate a strong discussion.

A top notch, very black comedy from Montreal.
An extraordinary black comedy set in Montreal. Leolo (a manufactured name) is a just slightly pre-pubescent boy who claims that only his dreams are sane and that he is the product of a very offbeat conception between an imported tomato and his mother. Trying to find his own reality, the main character narrates us into a surrealistic and somehow disturbing but yet very funny working of this his mind. As the young man begins to experience his own sexuality, we begin to see bits of reference to Phillip Roth's Portnoy's Complaint and with a film style which pays deference to Louis Malle's works, we become transported into a richly woven fabric of life in the blue collar neighborhood of Montreal. Beautifully acted, with a very good film score and the characteristic high quality of the "National Film Board of Canada" releases, Leolo is highly recommended to those who enjoy black comedy and fine cinema. English subtitles.

Caution to those who are hurting
The movie is a work of pure genius as it goes into the subconscious mind of a sensitive boy in terrible psychological anguish, raised by people with no ability to love.
Dangerously obsessive, perhaps psychotic, parents are raising their children as if they were less than animals. One by one we see the children losing touch with reality as their only coping mechanism.
For the duration of the movie, we are hoping that our hero Leolo will beat the odds.
This movie is best seen by professionals in the fields of psychiatry and psychology and too strong for sensitive people who are not.

A sensitive, beautiful, and extremely poetic film.
Leolo

This is a dark comedy that has much in common with the wonderful French film by Patrice LeConte entitled The Hairdresser's Husband. Certainly the two films are in the same genre. The film is a backwards and forwards look at the life of a gifted young lad named Leo, unlucky enough to be born a Silk Purse in a family of Sow's Ears, to complete the metaphor. Leo has the soul of a poet, and we hear his exquisite thoughts weaving the film together. The voice-overs are in French, of course, which makes them even more beautiful.

Leo is a dreamer, and his story is about the importance of dreams, and of love. The film is full of premonitions and gives many clues about events to come. It's a journey into the agonies and longings and ordeals of coming-of-age, but it's also much more. It's at times zany, playful, tragic, poetic, pensive, and thoughtful. It's filled with contrasts: innocence and depravity, sweetness and brutality, melancholy and etheriality, images of beauty and squalor, picturesque, warm vistas of Sicily and the cold starkness of tenements in Canada, a loving family cavorting on a Sunday outing and the craziness existing within that same family, just to name a few. The wonderful sensitivity and beautiful poetic quality of this film are exquisite to savor. It is a film that takes its time to tell its story, and finding that wonderful quality in a film is a true delight. So many films made in this country and in the world are compacted into staccato images that hit one's psyche like a machine gun. This one lingers on the images it presents, and imparts its message in its own time, on its own terms, and in its own unique way.

This is a film that needs to be seen more than once. It's complex and deep and wide-ranging and ambitious in scope. It's full of many-sided emotions and it's about more than just what happens in the plot. Purchase it, and savor it, and contemplate the wonderfully told story of a truly amazing life. Highly, highly recommended!!

SICK, SICK, SICK
As a cat lover, who had not read a review of this atrocity, I was appalled at the torture of the poor animal in this film. I can't help but wish the director had been hanged above his bathtub instead ofthe lecherous grandfather character. Can't comment on the film after the cat torture scene as that is when I pulled it from the VCR and smashed the tape with a ball peen hammer. ... Read more