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82
Dark Knight, The
35
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36
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54
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49
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34
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78
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71
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58
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61
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65
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79
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57
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73
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53
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24
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51
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43
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33
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31
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64
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52
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53
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63
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36
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35
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50
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47
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71
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70
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
93
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64
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47
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54
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93
WALL-E
82
Dark Knight, The
79
Iron Man
78
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
73
Kung Fu Panda
71
Tropic Thunder
71
Horton Hears a Who!
70
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
65
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
64
Wanted
64
Pineapple Express
63
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2, The
61
Incredible Hulk, The
58
House Bunny, The
57
Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
54
You Don't Mess with the Zohan
54
Get Smart
53
Sex and the City: The Movie
53
Longshots, The
52
Rocker, The
51
Mamma Mia!
50
Step Brothers
49
Hancock
47
Swing Vote
47
X-Files: I Want to Believe, The
43
Meet Dave
36
Space Chimps
36
Fly Me to the Moon
35
Star Wars: The Clone Wars
35
Death Race
34
Happening, The
33
Mirrors
31
Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, The
24
Love Guru, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

85
Alexandra
39
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66
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73
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
xx
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61
Baghead
55
Beautiful Losers
xx
Beer for My Horses
47
Before the Rains
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
56
Bottle Shock
75
Boy A
55
Bra Boys
61
Brick Lane
64
Brideshead Revisited
61
Bustin' Down the Door
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
54
CSNY: Déjà Vu
xx
Cthulhu
86
Edge of Heaven, The
62
Elegy
52
Elsa & Fred
80
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64
Fall, The
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
83
Frozen River
68
Girl Cut in Two, A
62
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73
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58
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25
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44
Henry Poole is Here
xx
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72
I.O.U.S. A
62
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46
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67
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62
Kabluey
63
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78
Last Mistress, The
50
Last Stop for Paul
70
Love Songs
61
Man Named Pearl, A
89
Man on Wire
90
Momma's Man
74
Mongol
80
Order of Myths, The
66
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
72
Priceless
61
Red
71
Roman de gare
78
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
51
Savage Grace
52
Sixty Six
81
Tell No One
56
Then She Found Me
71
To the Limit
71
Transsiberian
81
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
86
Up the Yangtze
79
Visitor, The
61
Wackness, The
53
What We Do Is Secret
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
64
XXY
75
Young@Heart
90
Momma's Man
89
Man on Wire
86
Up the Yangtze
86
Edge of Heaven, The
86
Flight of the Red Balloon, The
85
Alexandra
83
U2 3D
83
Frozen River
81
Trouble the Water
81
Tell No One
80
Encounters at the End of the World
80
Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
80
Order of Myths, The
79
Visitor, The
78
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired
78
Last Mistress, The
75
Young@Heart
75
Boy A
74
Mongol
73
Anita O'Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer
73
Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
72
Priceless
72
I.O.U.S. A
71
To the Limit
71
Transsiberian
71
Roman de gare
70
Love Songs
68
Girl Cut in Two, A
67
Jellyfish
66
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
66
American Teen
66
When Did You Last See Your Father?
64
Brideshead Revisited
64
XXY
64
Fall, The
63
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
62
Elegy
62
Kabluey
62
Girls Rock!
62
In Search of a Midnight Kiss
61
Bustin' Down the Door
61
Wackness, The
61
Baghead
61
Man Named Pearl, A
61
Red
61
Brick Lane
58
Hamlet 2
56
Bottle Shock
56
Then She Found Me
55
Beautiful Losers
55
Bra Boys
54
CSNY: Déjà Vu
53
What We Do Is Secret
52
Elsa & Fred
52
Sixty Six
51
Savage Grace
50
Last Stop for Paul
49
Children of Huang Shi, The
47
Before the Rains
46
Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
44
Henry Poole is Here
39
America the Beautiful
25
Hell Ride
xx
I Served the King of England
xx
Bachna Ae Haseeno
xx
Cthulhu
xx
Beer for My Horses
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Best of Youth, The
Miramax Films
MPAA RATING: R for language and brief nudity
Starring
Luigi Lo Cascio,
Alessio Boni,
Adriana Asti,
Sonia Bergamasco,
Fabrizio Gifuni,
Maya Sansa,
Valentina Carnelutti,
and
Jasmine Trinca
Spanning four decades, from the chaotic 1960s to the present, this passionate epic follows two Italian brothers through some of the most tumultuous events of recent Italian history. (Miramax)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Foreign
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Sandro Petraglia
Stefano Rulli
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Marco Tullio Giordana
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: February 7, 2006
Theatrical: March 2, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
358 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Italy |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Italian (with English subtitles) |
Original title "La Meglio Gioventù"; Un Certain Regard Award, 2003 Cannes Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
This is epic filmmaking on a profoundly human scale, directed to perfection and magnificently acted by everyone in sight.

100
Newsweek
David Ansen
Smart, generous, as subtle as it is expansive, this is storytelling of a rare order. Six hours may seem like a big investment, but the emotional pay-back is beyond price.

100
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
Like a great novel from a more expansive bygone age, The Best of Youth is full of big thoughts; like a great soap opera, it's also full of sharp plot turns, vibrant characters, and great talk. It is, in short, the best of cinema.

100
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
Those who see it will, quite frankly, not believe their luck. It is that satisfying, that engrossing, that good.

100
Chicago Tribune
Michael Wilmington
A major cinema event of the year, a masterpiece of Italian film traditions in social/political realism and historical family epic.

100
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
It is a luxury to be enveloped in a good film.

100
San Francisco Chronicle
Mick LaSalle
So in-depth, so appealing, so easy to sit through and so anomalously grand scale that few who see it will ever forget it.

100
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
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.

100
Portland Oregonian
Shawn Levy
In exchange for a small piece of your life, you receive an infinity.

90
The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
The Best of Youth takes its chance--almost unheard of, these days--to bloom and unfurl like a novel.

90
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
The story unfolds at such length and over so many years that politics tend to fade into the wallpaper, leaving an exceptionally rich family story.

90
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
And like all great family sagas, The Best of Youth, while tipping its hat to the painful confusion of living life forward, reels it backward to give it the thrilling significance of time and place.

90
Salon.com
Stephanie Zacharek
This is a graceful and enveloping feat of filmmaking.

90
Slate
David Edelstein
The Best of Youth doesn't have a boring millisecond. It isn't an art film, with longueurs; it's a mini-series with the sweep of a classic novel, with tons of plot.

90
Variety
Scott Foundas
At nearly six hours, pic's extreme length lets Giordana and screenwriters Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli build up a novelistic rhythm, pulling the audience so deeply and forcefully into their story that it becomes like a enveloping dream; when it's over, parting with the characters is truly sweet and sorrowful.

88
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
After all the observations on heartache, politics, art, commerce, passion, identity, mortality, even mental health, six hours begin to seem downright compact.

88
Rolling Stone
Peter Travers
The acting is electric. By the end of this haunting, hypnotic film, you feel you have watched lives being lived, not just imagined.

88
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
A slowly flowering miracle: an epic of normal life.

80
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
Works as both historical allegory and moving family drama.

80
Dallas Observer
Michael Fox
Eminently watchable, The Best of Youth nonetheless lacks the devastating emotional gut punch of its obvious inspiration, Visconti's "Rocco and His Brothers."

80
TV Guide
Ken Fox
Rarely have six hours spent doing ANYTHING seemed so rewarding.

80
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Lo Cascio and Boni inhabit their roles with keen intellectual and emotional vigor.

80
Village Voice
Jessica Winter
The movie has the addictive episodic intimacy of great TV.

80
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Full of nuance and complexity, but it is also as accessible and engrossing as a grand 19th-century novel.

80
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
Like some wines, The Best of Youth travels well. From its earliest moments the film is intelligently seen.

80
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
A big, family-style Italian dinner, catered to the broadest tastes, yet satisfying all the same.

75
New York Post
Russell Scott Smith
All the pieces converge in a powerful rush during the second half.

75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
If you've got six hours to invest watching superior television in a movie theatre, then spend the time wisely with The Best of Youth.


The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 123 User Votes
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