page_title: It's Only the End of the World
section_title: Critical response
hierarchical_section_title: It's Only the End of the World / Reception / Critical response
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Nathalie Baye à la cérémonie des César
context_page_description: It's Only the End of the World is a 2016 drama film written, edited and directed by Xavier Dolan. The film is based on the play of the same name by Jean-Luc Lagarce and stars Gaspard Ulliel, Nathalie Baye, Marion Cotillard, Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel. It is about a young playwright who reunites with his family after a 12-year absence to inform them he is going to die.
  A co-production of Canada and France, it was shot in Montreal and Laval, Quebec, beginning in 2015. The small core of actors were selected against typecasting, with Dolan and Cotillard challenged by the awkwardness in dialogue inherent in Lagarce's work.
  The film screened at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, where it received divided reactions from critics. Dolan became the second Canadian director to receive the Cannes Grand Prix. It also won six Canadian Screen Awards, including Best Motion Picture, and three César Awards, including Best Director.
context_section_description: The film premiered to polarized reactions from festival audiences and critics, with Vanity Fair calling it "the most disappointing film at Cannes". The Hollywood Reporter called it "a cold and deeply unsatisfying" film and Variety dubbed it "a frequently excruciating dramatic experience". Despite this, the film received positive reviews from critics, including The Guardian calling it a "brilliant, stylised and hallucinatory evocation of family dysfunction". Peter Howell of the Toronto Star wrote the film "deserves more applause than boos" and commended Dolan on his calm response to negative reviews. Cassel also argued the melodrama that some critics derided was appropriate to convey the family's collapse.
  In Canada, Marc-André Lussier of La Presse gave the film three and a half stars, commending Gaspard Ulliel for giving one of his best performances and cinematographer André Turpin for superb visuals. T'cha Dunlevy of the Montreal Gazette awarded it four stars, praising Turpin and "Dolan's daring cinematic approach to the subject matter", noting the number of close-ups. On 7 December 2016, the film was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual Canada's Top 10 list. In France, Isabelle Regnier wrote in Le Monde that the film far exceeded low expectations, and was one of Dolan's strongest works. Thierry Chèze of L'Express found the ambition admirable, and the film's contrasts to mirror Dolan's. Télérama's Louis Guichard wrote Dolan kept his style with his first all-French cast and a darker story.
  AlloCiné, a French cinema website, gave the film an average of 3.2/5, based on a survey of 44 French reviews. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 44% approval rating based on 82 reviews, with an average score of 5.48/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It's Only the End of the World is stocked with talent and boasts a story steeped in conflict, but the end result proves a disappointing misfire from writer-director Xavier Dolan". At Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the film received a score of 48, based on 11 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
caption: Nathalie Baye at the 42nd César Awards, where she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress.
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