80
The New York Times by Dana Stevens
Full of nuance and complexity, but it is also as accessible and engrossing as a grand 19th-century novel.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
90
The Best of Youth doesn't have a boring millisecond. It isn't an art film, with longueurs; it's a mini-series with the sweep of a classic novel, with tons of plot.
100
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
This is epic filmmaking on a profoundly human scale, directed to perfection and magnificently acted by everyone in sight.
88
New York Daily News by Jami Bernard
After all the observations on heartache, politics, art, commerce, passion, identity, mortality, even mental health, six hours begin to seem downright compact.
80
Village Voice by Jessica Winter
The movie has the addictive episodic intimacy of great TV.
80
Rarely have six hours spent doing ANYTHING seemed so rewarding.
80
The Hollywood Reporter by Kirk Honeycutt
Lo Cascio and Boni inhabit their roles with keen intellectual and emotional vigor.
88
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
The acting is electric. By the end of this haunting, hypnotic film, you feel you have watched lives being lived, not just imagined.
75
New York Post by Russell Scott Smith
All the pieces converge in a powerful rush during the second half.
90
At nearly six hours, pic's extreme length lets Giordana and screenwriters Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli build up a novelistic rhythm, pulling the audience so deeply and forcefully into their story that it becomes like a enveloping dream; when it's over, parting with the characters is truly sweet and sorrowful.