Final Rating: 3.5/5
Neon Dreaming, the latest from French Canadian director Marie-Claire Marcotte, follows the journey of irrepressible eight year old Billie (Maélya Boyd) who lives with her father Fred (Corey Loranger) and grandmother Marthe (Genevieve Langlois) in small town Quebec. Billie is a precocious kid who is under the impression her estranged mother Geneviève (Caroline Raynaud) is a ballerina. She came to this conclusion after finding a picture of Canadian ballerina Karen Kane in the attic as a young girl, assuming it was Genevieve and was never corrected by Marthe.
Unfortunately it doesn’t pay to dance around the truth, and this all comes to a head one day at school when the students are asked to share a picture of their family and speak about them to their class. Billie, despite the protestations of her grandmother (and encouraged by Fred) decides to speak about her mother, and shows the picture of Karen Kane. One of her fellow students recognizes the photo (as she has the same one in her house) and this sparks a debate about Billie’s mother, and ignites her mission to meet her.
Fred is an anxious man working his day job at a local store, who often has to pause and start counting to stop the stressed out feelings that plague him. He lacks the courage to tell Billie the truth about her mother, and that Geneviève has been trying to contact her for some time. She has left numerous letters at the house that Marthe has hid from Billie and eventually even a fish.
We aren’t totally filled in on the specifics of what happened but we know Geneviève had a drinking problem, and that at some point there was a fire. As a result Marthe was given legal guardianship of Billie and is unwilling to let Geneviève back into her life. Billie’s teacher Madame Sam (Shelia Isaro) informs Billie that she used to be close friends with her mother and that she cares for her very much.
Upon learning about this, Billie takes up the task herself and along with her neighbour/bestie Sherry (Maïna Rose Caméus) set out to find her. After undergoing treatment, Geneviève has moved back to be closer to Billie and lives with her new partner, Amadou (Pierre-André Muila). This prompts Billie and Sherry to sneak out and try to find her, only to be brought home and lectured on how dangerous this was.
After meeting with Marthe, Geneviève stresses that she has gotten her life back on track and deserves to be a part of Billie’s life again. After some debate, Marthe agrees and they begin the process of reconnecting. There are a number of sweet moments both between the young girls and Geneviève and Billie as they forge a relationship amidst the awkwardness of her having been gone so long, and trying to connect with one another. Much of the story is on the shoulders of Billie to carry and she does an excellent job of riding this emotional wave.
The friendship between the young girls is full of great chemistry and provides moments of both heart and humour as they plot this course. The nature of trying to reconnect with somebody is brought to the forefront as having been separated for so long it’s not exactly like riding a bike, and we see the moments of them trying to rediscover this relationship. The narrative never seems to judge the characters for the mistakes they made, or flaws they still exhibit, but gives them an opportunity to be accountable and learn from them, even if it’s all very straightforward, we want to see the happy ending and believe in second chances.
Neon Dreaming was seen during the 2025 International Film Festival of Ottawa.
