9. Youth
We go from the workmanlike style of McCarthy to the exact opposite. With Paolo Sorrentino, every frame is a heavily composed and sumptuously lit to create a feeling I can only describe as “absurd melancholy”. The film’s style is able to hold together without becoming overwhelming as it stands on the pillars of Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel, each giving one of the best performances of their respective careers. Their grounded senses of grieving lost love and fear they have nothing left to say artistically allows for moments like an overweight man kicking a tennis ball repeatedly into the air without the movie simply being an exercise in bizarre imagery for the sake of it. Youth is a gorgeous film, and the on its face pretension may alienate plenty of audience members. However, I was sucked in from the first second.
Categories: Top Ten Lists
Reel Projection 