Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Don't Believe the Hype

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

I loved the movie and it made my cry at the end... It is a great story of a boy who tries to find his own thoughts and his own way to go through the life, grabbing at first the ideas of older friends, the party-like structures, then movements. And the constant question "how to act right way" comes at end answered - and so the movie gives a good argument that Italy is not only "talking at the bars, maybe coming at the streets, but never doing something".In certain sense, very up-to-date movie and in certain sense very much sixties and seventies. I loved it, I recommend to everyone. Also, the camera-work and cut are more than enjoyable and I think that it represents somehow the visual trend of Italian cinema in the beginning of 21st century.

Saw this film last night with my same age friend (we do this often). As we are in our 60's and arrived in Rome during the period mentioned in the film. We were impressed with the verity of what we saw. While Italy remains fairly split between left and right, in those days it was far more brutal and school and university sit-ins were the name of the day. Everyone seemed to have fixed ideas which they discussed violently. We laughed at the communist 'let everyone state their views' meeting. These days condominium meetings are exactly like that. 2 Italians meet and you get two political parties! The film may not be the best one ever but even the scratchy quality of the film reminded us of that era. People our age (the audience had no-one under 50 last night), commented on how much they enjoyed it and how much it brought back memories. Perhaps you have to have lived the period to truly enjoy this film.

I rushed to see this movie, with Elio Germano, perhaps the best Italian actor of his generation, and Riccardo Scamarcio, the heartthrob of the moment. I got upset about the rejection from the snobbish Cannes Festival and I wanted to see the film by myself. Now, after having seen it, unfortunately, I have to agree with the Cannes decision. The film is a tired rehash of other books/films/TV done indifferently and boringly with two saving graces: Elio Germano's and Angela Finocchiaro's performances. The rest is, quite frankly, unendurable. The film felt long, long, long and I got more and more impatient and eventually angry with the whole thing. The Italian cinema that once was a power force of inspiring themes and ideas seems to have arrived to a total dead stop. The artists, I feel, with something new to say, like Libero Di Rienzo - have you seen his "Sangue" with Elio Germano as well? No, I bet you haven't. It was released in secrecy and for my money, his movie had something new to say in a totally new exciting way. I fear we, in Italy, can't move forward because we're trapped in some king of structure that it's terrified of new ideas. As a consequence we have films like this one. A throw back to the past and not in a nice way. Cannes? Are you nuts?

The first 30 minutes or so made me hope for the best. Elio Germano is an actor with an extraordinary power to grab his audience and make us care, plus, the film seemed to move away from the (very good) book it is based on and go for the most engaging comedic aspects of the story. I knew it was too good to be true. Shortly after the film falls in a series of common places robbing us from the possibility to be surprised, engaged or even care. I wonder why it is that we - in Italy I mean - feel the need to visit the past though the same identical paths. To tell you the truth, I'm sick and tired of it. Can we tell stories that live out of its own strength. Politics, intellectual reflections without any, real, base on reality. We are known for protesting at a bar table, maybe go to a demonstration but at the end of the day we are going to do what we're told. Honestly or dishonestly. Could it be that, this relentless film revisions, is a tacit way to justify the fact that we've been so ineffectual in real life. We've been through everything and more but nothing has really changed. We're better identified by the Alberto Sordi characters like the one in "La Grande Guerra" by the great Mario Monicelli. My question is: If I, as an Italian, couldn't care less about the political mismatch of two Italian brothers, imagine the rest of the world. How confusing and ultimately annoying way to tell a story. There was a sort of uproar today, knowing that this film had not been selected for the official selection at the Cannes Film Fest. Hey, come on, think again. Why should it be? There is absolutely nothing new in it. Nothing! Riccardo Scamarcio continues to sleep walk through his film roles. He is beautiful but not nearly as magnetic as Elio Germano. I hope we'll wake up soon and realize that we won't change the past by revisiting it. That we are who we are and should look ahead to see what happens.