Youth
Youth
R | 20 May 2015 (USA)
Youth Trailers

Two lifelong friends bond whilst vacationing in a luxury Swiss Alps lodge as they ponder retirement. While Fred has no plans to resume his musical career despite the urging of his loving daughter Lena, Mick is intent on finishing the screenplay for what may be his last important film for his muse Brenda. And where will inspiration lead their younger friend Jimmy, an actor grasping to make sense of his next performance?

Reviews
reem_aaxxll

A horrible movie with no story just some old wisdom nonsense the only thing good from it are gorges scene and luxury hotel location

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axapvov

At its best, "Youth" grabs his ideal of grandiloquence with pure cinema moments. It can get gorgeously evocative, like having an old Maradona thinking about his pre-match warm-ups. "What are you thinking about?", he´s asked, and he answers "the future". As eloquent as it can be it´s also too vague and two hours can become tedious. Maybe too sentimental as well but nostalgia is the engine after all. There´s nothing wrong in missing past times. Nothing.

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Michael Ledo

The film centers around 80 something composer/conductor Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine). He is at an Alps resort spa with his daughter Lena (Rachel Weisz) and long time friend and director Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel). Fred is retired and has refused to conduct for the Queen. Mick is with a group of writers as they are attempting to come up with a script for "Life's Last Day" and spend their time attempting to compose final death bed endings for the film. There are a number of minor subplots and players at the resort so you can create whatever theme or metaphor you desire for the film.The film was very artsy and theme driven. It appeared to focus on dreams and desires which are best left to youth, but I am sure one could get the opposite meaning. The film has a lot of good lines that appear that they tie things together, but then fall short."I have to believe everything to make things up." "Human beings know how to be pathetic when they try." "Emotions are overrated" contradicted by "Emotions is all we have." "I know you can't levitate."Rachel Weisz has a soliloquy where she nails it, but I wasn't sure what she nailed. Paloma Faith plays herself as an oversexed pop star. Madalina Diana Ghenea gets naked, which seems to be an odd sell point for an artsy film, but then again so did Michael Caine, and now I am blind.One thing I can say for certain is this is not a formula film. It is a series of scenes, many of which are isolated with no real connection to the main plot.People come to the spa to find themselves, realize their desires, and maybe make their dreams come true...

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Indie Cinema Magazine

The film "Youth" (La giovinezza) by the Italian director Paolo Sorrentino is a reflection of the deep crisis in Italian cinema. After the golden age of Italian cinema in the 1960s the crisis started and became inescapable.Director Sorrentino tells the story of two close friends vacationing in a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps. One is a composer played by Michael Caine another is a filmmaker played by Harvey Keitel. Michael Caine plays his role well as usual and is the only reason why the film is remotely watchable.Otherwise the film is dull, pretentious and lacks any new or interesting ideas. The cinematography was bland and unoriginal. The music was surprisingly awful considering this is a film about a famous and beloved composer.The product placement for Microsoft Kinect was shameless, annoying and resembled a parody. The film had a positive critical response, however it is not a masterpiece, just utterly forgettable.The film is just another imitation of Fellini in the same way as "The Great Beauty" (La grande bellezza) but "The Great Beauty" at least was not so flat out boring and monotonous.It is time for the directors to stop stealing from the great masters and to their find own unique style and to produce new ideas and the film jurors should not encourage plagiarism either."Youth" can only be recommended as a sleeping aid.See more reviews at: http://indie-cinema.com/

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