Revealing too much of the narrative would spoil the pleasure of learning where Matteo and Nicola find themselves. "Youth" sells us on the idea that life is a gift and that beauty and rejuvenation can come from even seemingly unbearable lows.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 25, 2010

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jul 14, 2007

You weep, laugh, celebrate and mourn with the characters throughout the six hours, which at once seem like an eternity and an instant.

| Original Score: 4/4 | May 13, 2007

An astonishing, deeply engrossing Italian family saga that happens to be six hours long.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Jun 23, 2006

The Best of Youth is no masterpiece, but it has enough truthful, moving moments to make it worthwhile.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 16, 2006

Works in the engrossing fashion of a good pulpy novel ... using whiskery melodramatic staples to digress into a whole slew of differing scenarios and moods.

| Mar 2, 2006

a touchstone of Italian cinema

| Original Score: A | Feb 20, 2006

a story that's less like fiction and more like the way that families (and countries) actually age.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 7, 2006

This epic elegy to family and country is a towering work of narrative fiction.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 5, 2006

With the six-hour running time, Giordana gets the space to let the characters live and let their shared story unfold like a good novel.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Sep 23, 2005

Traces the quiet failures and proud struggles of everyday lives caught up like driftwood in the currents of history . . . conjures up an exultant, slice-of-life authenticity.

Full Review | Sep 15, 2005

By the end, we know these characters so well that just seeing any two of them meet draws tears

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 1, 2005

It maintains a defiant optimism that the actions of individuals matter.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Aug 10, 2005

Unfolds like a novel full of characters we can't help but care about.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 29, 2005

When the movie concludes, you can talk about these characters as if you actually know them -- which won't be far from the truth.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 29, 2005

| Original Score: C+ | Jul 12, 2005

Few films have ever made better use of combining social and political history with romantic melodrama and suspense.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 24, 2005

Best of Youth has the textures and depth of characterization of a great novel.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 9, 2005

Its point is this: That every nation, like a family, is made up of many people who are often at odds with one another, but that ultimately, we are all one.

| Jun 3, 2005

A family that seems as real as your own relatives.

| Jun 3, 2005