Metascore

Generally favorable reviews - based on 19 Critics What's this?

  • Summary: Already a smash in its native Italy, My Brother is an Only Child, which was presented at this year's Cannes and Toronto film festivals, reunites director Daniele Luchetti with longtime collaborators Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli, best known as screenwriters of the highly acclaimed The Best of Youth. Set in a small Italian town in the '60s and '70s, the film tells the story of two brothers who want to change the world--but in completely different ways. The elder, Manrico, is a handsome, charismatic firebrand who becomes the prime mover in the local Communist party. Accio, the younger, more rebellious brother, finds his own contrarian voice by joining the reactionary Fascists. What starts as a typical tale of sibling rivalry becomes a story of the polarizing and paralyzing politics of those turbulent times. The rift between the brothers is further intensified when Accio realizes that he loves his brother's girlfriend, Francesca, who like everyone else is blind to Manrico's increasingly dangerous ideas. (THINKFilm) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 19
  2. Negative: 0 out of 19
  1. Moviegoers of a certain age may feel as though they are watching a lost Bertolucci film.
  2. Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    88
    There's a hilarious performance of a "de-fascisized" version of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy," and the soundtrack prominently features an Italian version of the crypto-fascist girl-group classic "I Will Follow Him," a joke Kenneth Anger first made in "Scorpio Rising" that's still funny today.
  3. Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    50
    The rough-and-tumble tone is bitterly entertaining but in the end doesn't contribute to a convincing historical portrait, and a pileup of half-baked resolutions spoils the buzz.

See all 19 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. NovakG.
    9
    Deeply engaging, clever and funny movie.Acting is superb! No need to say that, at some point, I had a huge sympathy for the younger brother who is fascist, even though I have always been on the other -left-side... Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

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