Youth (2015)

Let's be realistic.

Admirable film.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

Retired concert conductor Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) is vacationing at a peaceful Swiss spa with long-time friend Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel). He is asked to perform for the Queen but he refuses for a personal reason. Mick is a filmmaker working on his next script with his troop of young contributors. Fred's daughter and assistant Lena (Rachel Weisz) is married to Mick's son but he has left her for a pop star for the sex. The other hotel clients include actor Jimmy Tree (Paul Dano), an obese Diego Maradona, a bitter silent elderly couple, and a young girl.The surrealism sometimes work but not all the time. I like the Nazi outfit, the soap bubble girl, but the dream of Mick's female characters don't register. The grassy hill swallows them up. They are better off lined up in a row in emptiness. As for the main roles, I'd like for Fred and Mick to spend more time together. I love the time that Fred spends with Lena. Dano is hit and miss. His best is with the little girl. I would have love to be told that it was Maradona right from the start. I'm not a soccer fan and I wouldn't know him even if he's not obese. This is definitely a movie with its own style. Director Paolo Sorrentino has an unique sense of rhythm and isn't for everybody. This is for the stylish art house fans.

I wonder if either Michael Caine or Harvey Keitel regrets having made this movie? One wonders what they thought of the project when proposed, and what they thought after seeing the result. I don't know about Keitel, but Caine certainly doesn't need the money, so one wonders why he signed on to such a pretentious, artsy-fartsy piece of balderdash. Unless, as I say, the project sounded different when presented. First of all, there is no coherent story line. Oh there' s plenty of family acrimony between father and daughter, and some confict between a pair of lovers splitting up, and a scenery-chewing scene between two elderly, separated show business types reaching the end sof their lives and careers. And of course the reference to homsexuality that is de rigeur nowadays. But they are presented as isolated threads with no unifying theme to draw them together. Then we have the pretentiousness. A plethora of cryptic and obscure scenes with weird stagings oddly shot, reminiscent of Fellini, are scattered throughout the film, like trash over a landscape, and make the viewer wonder just what the hell is going on at that particular moment. It wasn't quite bad enough to make me stop the film in the middle, but that is only because of the gorgeous cinematography of the Swiss landscape. Still, I wish, as they say, that I could have my two hours back.

I've seen a lot of movies in my life, but I can't recall a single one with so many good actors involved in such a great nonsense: a supposedly adult reflection on life and aging, filled with commonplace phrases and silly remarks of all sorts, with signs and hints leading nowhere and at the same time predictability in the most childish way (from the incomprehensible inclusion of senseless scenes with Diego Maradona, one of the most stupidest men on earth, to the moment Michael Caine tells the buddhist monk something like "You can't fool me, I know you can't levitate", after which you can bet your life you will get a scene with the monk's levitation...) I don't think this awful mess deserves any more words: it's the greatest and saddest waste of money and talented actors I've ever seen.

I was so excited to see Youth. Michael Caine had been promoting it all year, claiming it was the movie he was most proud of in his career, and everyone hoped he'd finally nab the Best Actor Oscar. It didn't make it to any of my local movie theaters, but I rented it the first available weekend. Had I sat through it, it would probably be one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Thankfully, remotes have a little button called "fast-forward" so I was only forced to watch about thirty collective minutes.Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel are on vacation in a spa in the Alps. Michael is a retired composer, and Harvey is a film director. They're old friends, and they talk about their work, their families, and getting older. Michael's daughter, Rachel Weisz, shows up because her husband left her, and an aging actress, Jane Fonda, shows up to talk about a role. That's all I was able to get out of the plot. The disjointed scene transitions, strange music choices, minimalistic script, random nude women, and generally confusing storyline ruined the rest of the film. Unless you love "art films" and have the absolute opposite taste in movies as I do, I would tell you to stay as far away from Youth as possible.Kiddy warning: Obviously, you have control over your own children. However, due to graphic nudity and confusing content, I wouldn't let my kids watch this movie.