The Best of Youth is no masterpiece, but it has enough truthful, moving moments to make it worthwhile.
Comment
03/16/06
The Best of Youth (2005)
95
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:60
Fresh:57
Rotten:3
Average Rating:8.3/10
Consensus: Earns its 6 hours running time by telling an engrossing story with compelling characters.
Runtime: 6 hrs 40 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
US Box Office: $0
Synopsis: Spanning four decades, from the chaotic 1960s to the present, director Marco Tullio Giordana’s passionate epic THE BEST OF YOUTH follows two Italian brothers through some of the most tumultuous... [More]
Starring: Luigi Lo Cascio, Alessio Boni, Adriana Asti, Sonia Bergamasco
Director: Marco Tullio Giordana
Reviews for The Best of Youth
Giordana's redemptive vision provides a sense of discovery and a well of hope in the most devastating of troubles, and beautiful surprises in love, friendship and family.
05/12/05
a story that's less like fiction and more like the way that families (and countries) actually age.
02/07/06
After all the observations on heartache, politics, art, commerce, passion, identity, mortality, even mental health, six hours begin to seem downright compact.
03/04/05
This film is either a profound investigation of recent Italian history and a loving look at the national psyche -- warts, poetry and all -- or else it's a really superb soap opera.
05/13/05
Its storytelling style is as close to the novel form as you'll find on film, both a strengh and a weakness.
03/31/05
A slowly flowering miracle: an epic of normal life.
05/06/05
It maintains a defiant optimism that the actions of individuals matter.
08/10/05
There are some beautifully modulated performances from a vast cast of compelling characters.
02/09/04
It avoids the pratfalls of easy melodrama by maintaining a psychological distance from its characters; there are never any obvious explanations for their choices or behaviors.
03/22/05
When the movie concludes, you can talk about these characters as if you actually know them -- which won't be far from the truth.
07/29/05
I dropped outside of time and was carried along by the narrative flow; when the film was over, I had no particular desire to leave the theater, and would happily have stayed another three hours.
04/01/05
Top CriticThis is the sort of movie you'll recommend to friends and they'll go, 'Six hours! Are you nuts?' and then call you up and thank you in the middle of the night.
03/03/05
An impassioned epic that sweeps up its characters in nearly 40 years of human drama and social history, intertwining the two with a master seamstress' delicacy.
02/24/05
Top CriticRarely have six hours spent doing anything seemed so rewarding.
03/04/05
An astonishing, deeply engrossing Italian family saga that happens to be six hours long.
06/23/06
Traces the quiet failures and proud struggles of everyday lives caught up like driftwood in the currents of history . . . conjures up an exultant, slice-of-life authenticity.
09/15/05
This epic elegy to family and country is a towering work of narrative fiction.
02/05/06
In the end, you'll be savouring an emotion not often engendered by film: tranquillity, a calm acceptance, tinged with joy and flecked with sadness, of life's up-and-down journey.
05/13/05
Best of Youth has the textures and depth of characterization of a great novel.
06/09/05
Latest News for The Best of Youth
April 05, 2006:
Breaking News: Movies Not Screened For Critics Aren't Very Good
After some furious debate over David Germain's discussion of films "not screened for critics," RT takes a look at the Tomatometers and respective B.O. performances of... More...
December 13, 2005:
Awards Season Gets Rolling with Crix Picks
If you're a fan of the late-year awards season, be sure to add Movie City News to your hit list, because they deliver some consistently excellent coverage. Mid-December is when... More...
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