REVIEW: ‘Adore’ Elegantly Explores the Anxious Lyricism of Intergenerational Relationships

There are a number of reasons Anne Fontaine’s Adore should be the most personal film I’ve seen in years. Unusually for an Australian film, it is set within almost exactly the same socio-cultural niche the Aussie side of my family occupies, albeit in New South Wales, and we’re from Melbourne. When I was twenty, or the age of the two male leads, I lived in Mum’s hometown for a while, staying first with her childhood best friend, Auntie Sooo, who has a son more or less my age with whom I quickly fell in love — he looked like a teen Mel Gibson, and was sweet and loving, and so forth. The physical aspect of our relationship was never consummated,