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Best of Youth, The

Universal acclaim
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 131 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Foreign
Written by:
Sandro Petraglia
Stefano Rulli
Directed by: Marco Tullio Giordana
Release Date:
Theatrical: March 2, 2005
DVD: February 7, 2006
Running Time: 358 minutes, Color
Origin: Italy
Language(s): Italian (with English subtitles)
Summary
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)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site Film Forum Profile
What The Critics Said
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...
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
This is epic filmmaking on a profoundly human scale, directed to perfection and magnificently acted by everyone in sight.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Those who see it will, quite frankly, not believe their luck. It is that satisfying, that engrossing, that good.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
In exchange for a small piece of your life, you receive an infinity.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker Anthony Lane
The Best of Youth takes its chance--almost unheard of, these days--to bloom and unfurl like a novel.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
This is a graceful and enveloping feat of filmmaking.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Works as both historical allegory and moving family drama.
Read Full Review >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."
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Lo Cascio and Boni inhabit their roles with keen intellectual and emotional vigor.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Jessica Winter
The movie has the addictive episodic intimacy of great TV.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
Like some wines, The Best of Youth travels well. From its earliest moments the film is intelligently seen.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
A big, family-style Italian dinner, catered to the broadest tastes, yet satisfying all the same.
Read Full Review >New York Post Russell Scott Smith
All the pieces converge in a powerful rush during the second half.
Read Full Review >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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 131 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Alan L gave it a10:
I saw this film when it was first released. it is now November 2009 and I just recommended it to a friend, deciding for the first time to look at some of the film's reviews. Reading those reviews brought back so much of my pleasure in this film that I began to have tears in my eyes. The film is a great experience.
Robert L gave it a10:
One of the best films I've ever seen. Beautiful, warm, suspenseful, tender. Can't recommend too highly. After the six hours you'll still not want it to end.
Cristina A gave it a10:
Gripping, wonderful story, great acting. I didn't want it to end.
Shirley L gave it a10:
I want to give it 9.5. I had seen it at least 6 times and every time I still found new clues and new interpretations of the characters.
Marco B gave it a10:
The movie is very long, so the comment will be very short: it's just an astonishing piece of filmmaking, who leaves you begging for more after 6 hours. Just see it and enjoy the experience.
Jeff T gave it a3:
Too long. I saw this film to practice Italian and that was my motivation to see the whole thing. To begin with, I didn't know it was six hours so I kept waiting for it to end. I don't understand all the raves. I am a foreign film aficionado but this one was much too slow for me and it had too many subplots. I couldn't relate nor bond with any of the characters.
Keyser S. gave it a10:
The most beautiful story?Yes.Seriously,this story will touch the heart of any human being.
