Winter Boy

Winter Boy (Le Lycéen) is a French drama film, directed by Christophe Honoré and released in 2022. The film stars Paul Kircher as Lucas, a gay teenager coping with the sudden and unexpected death of his father in an accident that may or may not have been suicide.

The film's cast also includes Juliette Binoche as Lucas's mother Isabelle, Vincent Lacoste as his older brother Quentin, Adrien Casse as his boyfriend Oscar and Honoré himself as the father, as well as Xavier Giannoli, Pascal Cervo, Wilfried Capet, Jean-Philippe Salerio, Erwan Kepoa Falé, Anne Kessler and Isabelle Thevenoux in supporting roles.

Winter Boy premiered in the Contemporary World Cinema program at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, and screened in competition at the 70th San Sebastián International Film Festival. The film received generally positive reviews, with praise going towards the performances of Kircher, Binoche and Lacoste. For his portrayal of Lucas, Kircher won the Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance and was nominated for the César Award for Most Promising Actor and the Lumières Award for Best Male Revelation.

Cast

 * Paul Kircher as Lucas Ronis
 * Vincent Lacoste as Quentin Ronis, Lucas' older brother
 * Juliette Binoche as Isabelle Ronis, Lucas and Quentin's mother
 * Erwan Kepoa Falé as Lilio Rossio, Quentin's friend and roommate in Paris
 * Christophe Honoré as Lucas and Quentin's father
 * Adrien Casse as Oscar, Lucas' boyfriend in high school
 * Anne Kessler as Sonia
 * Elliot Jenicot as Thierry
 * Pascal Cervo as Father Benoît
 * Lawa Fauquet as Lilio's mother
 * Matéo Demurtas as Gabriel

Critical response
The film received an average rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars on the French website AlloCiné, based on 34 reviews.

Reviewing the film for The New York Times, Devika Girish said that the film "shines when it allows its actors to quietly play out family dynamics, with Lacoste, Binoche and especially Kircher wearing the many shades of grief with effortless, endearing naturalism." Derek Smith of Slant Magazine noted that "where many films show grief merely as a crippling hindrance, Winter Boy sees it as an emotional state that constantly rises and recedes, disrupting the flow and morphing the meaning of everyday experience" and went on to praise Kircher, Binoche and Lacoste's performances. Describing the former's performance, Smith wrote that Kircher delivered a "remarkably restrained yet captivating debut performance" and that he "imbues Lucas with a precociousness and mischievousness that makes it challenging to easily discern exactly how he's handling his father's untimely death or what exactly drives his increasingly curious behavior." On the latter two, Smith opined that "Binoche and Lacoste are superb in their small roles, and through their respective characters' attempts to both guide and restrain Lucas."