PodBill Just what I expected

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

ShangLuda Admirable film.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

ralklein Always one of the movies in my TOP 10 and after watching it for a third time which I never do for movies, it keeps moving Up the ranking.

SnoopyStyle It starts in 1966 Rome. Nicola and Matteo Carati are on the verge of adulthood. Matteo volunteers at a mental hospital where he takes an interest in troubled patient Giorgia. The brothers believe that she has been abused with electro-shock therapy. This mini-series follows the brothers as they navigate life, love, and turmoil. Matteo joins the military and then the police. Nicola becomes a psychiatrist and have a child with Giulia who turns into a political radical. Nicola would meet up with Giorgia again. This time she is tied down to a bed like many of the other patients.The first part of this series centers around the intriguing character of Giorgia. To be frank, she's the face on the poster and the face of the show. Her predicament draws in the audience. Then she disappears from the show. The brothers' story moves on. Their lives meander and take differing turns. Some of it is interesting but I kept wondering what happened to Giorgia until the series crosses path with her again. I would be more interested in this life-story epic if it deals more with her. Nevertheless, it has interesting turns and has an epic feel for the personal stories.

CornellWatcher It is difficult for me to write a review right now explaining why this is one of the best films I've ever seen while giving it the justice it has earned. The Best of Youth which was directed with perfection by Marco Tullio Giordana and stars Luigi Lo Cascio and Alessio Boni, is a grand epic that is unforgettable. Knowing little about the story and its characters I was unprepared by how the powerful soul of this beautiful film would affect me! The narrative begins in Italy with Nicola (Cascio) and Matteo Carati (Boni) who are brothers growing into adulthood during the 1960s when the country is undergoing major political change. It is a heartfelt tale that elevates itself into something more than a traditional family drama with Nicola and Matteo serving as our guides through the development of their country and family as the two progress into the 2000s.To start off, I loved the script for the film that was written by Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli. Every scene, shot, and character flowed with a genuine humanity that I wish most films had. The Best of Youth is also a bildungsroman that is in tradition with Margaret Mitchell's "Gone with the Wind," that it chronicles the lives and experiences of the characters coming of age during an important political era. For example, in the beginning the brothers are separated for a time and are reunited once again in Florence during the dreadful 1966 Arno River Flood. These characters become apart of you as their story becomes your story. A viewer can look at the Carati family and immediately find a familiarity in their lives that we recognize in our own identities.As I said above, Giordana's direction is flawless as he invites us to feel the pleasures, nuances, and conflicts of the era he is depicting. With the extraordinary photography by Roberto Forza, Giordana captures the best parts of Italy without manipulating the look and feel of the country to the point that the film's images have a documentary style. Whether the film is shooting coverage of Palermo, the Coliseum in Rome, or the beautiful island of Stromboli, Giordana captures the beauty of Italy in it's simplicity. As a result I was almost convinced that the film was covering the lives of real people.Focusing on the beautiful ensemble cast, every actor gives the best work of their career. In addition to the tender, powerful performances of Cascio and Boni, all of the women in The Best of Youth play some of the best female characters caught on screen. Jasmine Trinca is heartbreaking as the mentally vulnerable Giorgia who helps define the relationship of the two brothers. Sonia Bergamasco is enigmatic as Giulia who's twisted political views drive her away from becoming a mother to Nicola's child. A wonderful surprise is Maya Sansa as Mirella who exhibits such a genuine warmth and luminescence as the woman the two brothers eventually find love in. There was never a moment during my viewing of the film when these characters failed to hold my attention, or suspend my belief. I truly cared about them even after the last frame rolled.I could talk about The Best of Youth for days which should be enough for you to go out and see the film for yourself. It is definitely one of the great masterpieces of Italian cinema that belongs with the work of other great directors such as Vittorio De Sica (Bicycle Thieves, Umberto D.). It is one of my favorite films, and should be watched by anyone who can spare the six hour running time. I guarantee you will love this film as the characters become apart of your life. An emotional, powerful epic that reminds the viewer why we go to the movies in the first place.

alicecbr Yes, wonderful story of modern Italian history told through the experiences of 2 brothers and their extended family from 66 until 2003. So, here are the questions. Why did Matteo (spoiler alert) roll himself over the balcony as casually as you would roll out of bed? What happened when they let the police take away the beautiful mental patient that they had liberated from the electroshocks of the asylum? Why did the Red brigade woman left her daughter and lover for the horrible life of an assassin? What unresolved hatreds did she harbor? Like the Gerhard documentary about the German Red Brigade woman who fled her own family, taking her daughters on the road and committing suicide in jail, this action by this Italian woman was equally hard to fathom. What happened in Matteo's childhood that caused an occasion such as the botched delivery of the mental patient into the hands of the police (and back to the abuse of the asylum) to divert him from a career as a writer/poet, whatever to the politzi. First, the Army and then the police. His photography hobby becomes part of his job as he takes shots of corpses, murder victims. His temper is ungovernable. Something had to happen to turn him this way, not just one incident when he's 21!!!!So we go from Turin to Palermo, to Capri to Sicily to Rome and it's all beautiful. With the taxes to pay that I have, I 'll have to use this for my trip to Italy this year. The cinematography is outstanding. It is said that if you want to hold the audience past their leaving the theater, you want to embed certain thoughts in their mind, certain issues that the movie didn't resolve. This one certainly does that, as you want to find out how that mental patient did AFTER she left the asylum, what actually cause the mother to leave her family and join the Red Brigade. And the wonderful 'trick' of saving the mother by having her arrested!!! Reminded me of the psychiatrist who says, "Hospitalize anyone you love who is having a suicidal episode. By that you save their lives." Unfortunately me, a friend of mine was allowed to check herself out of the hospital. She returns home and turns on the car and funnels CO back into it, killing herself. So, I really appreciated the action of this psychiatrist, Matteo's brother.The most affecting lines: "I had the opportunity to stop both my brother and my lover at this door from killing himself, and ruining her life. I allowed them the freedom to do that, which I shouldn't have." (That's when he sets up a meeting at which she's arrested, and goes to jail.)Great movie. have to see it again.