The Best Of Youth
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Movie Reviews of The Best Of Youth
Movie Review: The Best of Films!
Summary: 5 Stars
All 368 minutes of it.
I found this film to be wholly absorbing. At first, I needed a bit of time to get the characters sorted out, but, before I knew it, I was totally captivated, staying up all night to finish the first disk and feeling frustrated that I would have to wait until the next evening to play the second one.
"The Best of Youth" relates the saga of an Italian family. It follows the protagonists----two brothers and their friends----over a period of forty years, from the late sixties to the year 2000. The story, which begins and ends with a journey, takes the viewer on an odyssey that covers the length of Italy and Sicily and is played out against the background of some of the most turbulent events that shook that nation during the late twentieth century: revelations about the scandalous treatment of the mentally ill; the flood in Florence; the Red Brigade terrorists; Tangentopoli (Payola in High Places); and the horrendous judicial assassinations in Sicily by the Mafia.
The film, however, is no downer. One comes to care deeply for all the characters, laughing and crying with them. The story, furthermore, takes unpredictable turns, maintaining the suspense until the very end, which I did not want to come. The fact that Italy provides the splendid locations is a bonus.
If this be Italophilia, make the most of it!
Movie Review: A masterpiece.
Summary: 5 Stars
This Italian film is a masterpiece, one of the greatest works I've ever seen in my life. I'm glad I invested myself in the film when it was played in two parts at a local theater this summer. Director Marco Tullio Giordana's epic is six hours long, but attending the film was an incredibly moving and special experience. It's the story of two very different brothers, Nicola and Matteo, and how their family coped with the last 40 years of social, personal and political upheaval in Italy. The lead actors, Luigi Lo Cascio and Alessio Boni, each give powerful and believeable performances as their characters mature over 40 years. The scope of this film's story is gigantic, filled with fascinating, well-defined characters, and it never steps wrong. It has marvelous actors, a great script and beautiful cinematography. Most of my favorite movies this year featured some big quest or journey, an attempt to discover something new or find a way to grow, and THE BEST OF YOUTH featured the grandest journeys, the most interesting people, the most beautiful sites, the deepest tragedies and the most fulfilling discoveries. The act of going to the theater to see it - making two trips in two weeks - became an endeavor, and the movie rewards those who invest their time in it. This is the best movie I saw in 2005.Movie Review: Immensely warm and humane
Summary: 5 Stars
It is admittedly difficult to find the time to watch a film of this length, but for the viewer who looks to cinema for the same complexity of tale and depth of characterization that he might find in a ambitious novel, then the journey here is well worth it. I watched "The Best of Youth" in two parts, and each time I found myself sorry to find it end. The characters -- whose lives you follow over four decades -- are so intricately drawn, their stories so deftly tied up with Italy's history, that it's hard to let them go.
The central relationship of the film is that between two brothers, Matteo and Nicola. Nicola, the more grounded of the two, becomes a doctor and has a child as a young man. Matteo, emotional and tortured by his own demons, joins the army and is the soul of the film. But throughout we're introduced to so many others, and the ways in which their stories come and go and intermix with those of the two brothers is utterly masterful.
The individual threads of the story do lapse a little into melodrama in the end, but nonetheless the emotions feel deserved. And the acting, with the exception of one or two overdone scenes, is exceptional throughout. I can't recommend this highly enough.
Movie Review: Complimenti!
Summary: 5 Stars
While "La Meglio Gioventù" is not a perfectly made drama, it doesn't matter. In the end, one feels privileged to have followed its characters through the course of their lives. And along the way, we get to see the cultural and political changes that Italy goes through as well. It is a profoundly moving experience.
The series doesn't follow a traditional storyline, but rather follows the ups and downs of two brothers (Matteo and Nicola). And there will be ambiguity, for in the end, Matteo remains an introverted mystery. Is his self-loathing born from his inability to make a difference in his tumultuous Italian world? Or is it an imbalance that his psychiatrist brother Nicola could help him out with? (Speaking of Nicola, he is brilliantly played by a likable Luigi Lo Cascio. Bravo.)
Kudos to director Marco Tullio Giordana for not taking the obvious path with the story. For example, the mentally ill and beautiful Giorgia (Jasmine Trinca) does not take part in the improbable romance one would get in an inferior film. Instead, she fights her own conflicts of instability and independence and reflects the problems and evolution of Italy's health care system. Anyway, again, a most moving experience.
Movie Review: The Best - "The Best of Youth"
Summary: 5 Stars
There are two types of people in the world - those who have seen "The Best of Youth" and those who, I profoundly hope, will see it soon.
I came across this movie in the middle of the night on cable t.v., watched the entire 6 1/2 hours, wanted more when it was over, and ordered a copy from Amazon first thing in the morning. I have watched the whole thing 3 more times since, and every time I see it there is something new that I never noticed before.
I am in my fifties, and this is the best movie I have seen in my entire life, bar none. (And my 22-year-old daughter loves it just as much as I do.) Yes, it is long; yes, it is in Italian with subtitles, and trust me, you will not even notice. The story draws you in so that in a couple of hours you feel as if you've known the Carati family forever, and you love them.
This is a story about events of the past four decades, but most of all, it is a story about the timeless themes of family, finding one's place in the world, loss, and love. There ought to be a designation of more than five stars for a movie as good as this one.