Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes (with the award explicitly and rightly split among director Abdellatif Kechiche and his two amazing lead actors) and subject of fiery post-Cannes hubbub (with director and actors feuding publicly over the film’s sexual and emotional explicitness), Blue Is the Warmest Color is a “first love” love story packed with so much life that the few iffy aesthetic choices become secondary concerns. Central to everything: the astonishing lead performance of Adèle Exarchopoulos, who opens herself to Kechiche’s point-blank camera fearlessly, from the first frame. (Harvard Exit, 807 E Roy St, see Movie Times for showtimes)

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...