Although a theatrical release date has not yet been set for Lukas Dhont’s second feature Close, A24 is capitalizing off the Telluride premiere of the Grand Prix Cannes winner by releasing the first trailer. Coming from the 31-year-old Belgian director, the film follows Léo and Rémi, two thirteen-year-old best friends whose seemingly unbreakable bond is suddenly, tragically torn apart.
David Katz said in his review, “Lukas Dhont’s Close, following up Girl from 2017, admirably attempts to delve into a friendship like this, with sensitivity and a rare gift of observation. Where it falters is an attempt to stir and batter the viewer with melodramatic plot turns and operatic emotion. This approach will likely please more of its audiences to come than others, but Dhont here arguably becomes so carried away with the emotional tempest he has an undoubted gift to conjure that the arc of the film feels artificial, somewhat tidy. Contending for the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Close, following on from the notion of “Oscar bait,” is Palme-bait: a well-crafted tearjerker of a manipulative kind that believes the best way to move an audience is by prodding them. (It eventually won the Grand Prix, the putative runner-up award.) There’s even a precedent amongst previous Palme winners with Nanni Moretti’s superior The Son’s Room, which follows a similar plot trajectory. “
See the trailer below.
Close will be released by A24.