B+Directed by Paolo Sorrentino Starring Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, and Rachel Weisz Review by Jon Kissel |  |
My first experience with the work of Paolo Sorrentino came in the beginning of 2017 with his gonzo HBO series The Young Pope, a delightfully campy, often nonsensical sojourn into a campy, often nonsensical organization. I don't see any reason Pope Francis wouldn't have LMFAO playing while putting on the papal tiara, as Sorrentino's pope does, or that the real Vatican Gardens don't have a kangaroo hopping around freely. Sorrentino's auteurist mind was a fun place to hang out in for a period of time, and there's no reason the same expectation shouldn't extend to his film work. In Youth, the Italian director applies his overwrought dialogue and oddly-beautiful interstitial scenes to another cloistered area, this time a swanky spa and hotel for the rich and famous.
Anchored by Michael Caine's apathetic composer Fred, Sorrentino stuffs the spa with meaty roles for Harvey Keitel, Rachel Weisz, Paul Dano, and Jane Fonda, and memorable background players like the various performers the spa brings in to entertain the guests or the eccentric guests themselves. The wealth is judiciously spread around, with Weisz's Lena, as Fred's daughter and assistant, making a meal out of a dense monologue, and a guest meant to be an obese Diego Maradonna shirtlessly, hypnotically bouncing a tennis ball high into the air, over and over again, off his foot. Sorrentino is never boring, even as the eye rolls at Keitel's director and his team of pretentious writers trying and failing to nail the last line in his next movie script.
Sorrentino, who also wrote the script, is addressing several themes in Youth, and probably too many. Fred, Keitel's Mick, and Dano's actor Jimmy are all worried that their work, though appreciated, is too banal, and that their lives won't have produced anything of great meaning. The injustices of aging form the backbone of Fred and Mick's daily conversations. A decrease in urine production has coincided with a lack of joy and motivation in them, especially in Fred who can't be bothered to do much of anything, even when asked by the queen's emissary to conduct his most famous work for her. Lena's husband is leaving her for a younger woman. Everything ties back into the value of a life, of love, of superficial beauty against something more tangible, and Sorrentino captures all this in dialogue far too flowery to ever sound natural. With his excellent cast and dazzling shot composition by DP Luca Bigazzi, Sorrentino bludgeons the viewer into submission. Like the Young Pope, Youth works in spite of itself, building to an angelic apotheosis. Sorrentino might be one of those directors I have to make allowances for. His efforts might be ridiculous, but they eventually reach past explanation into unknowable appreciation. B+
Sorrentino, who also wrote the script, is addressing several themes in Youth, and probably too many. Fred, Keitel's Mick, and Dano's actor Jimmy are all worried that their work, though appreciated, is too banal, and that their lives won't have produced anything of great meaning. The injustices of aging form the backbone of Fred and Mick's daily conversations. A decrease in urine production has coincided with a lack of joy and motivation in them, especially in Fred who can't be bothered to do much of anything, even when asked by the queen's emissary to conduct his most famous work for her. Lena's husband is leaving her for a younger woman. Everything ties back into the value of a life, of love, of superficial beauty against something more tangible, and Sorrentino captures all this in dialogue far too flowery to ever sound natural. With his excellent cast and dazzling shot composition by DP Luca Bigazzi, Sorrentino bludgeons the viewer into submission. Like the Young Pope, Youth works in spite of itself, building to an angelic apotheosis. Sorrentino might be one of those directors I have to make allowances for. His efforts might be ridiculous, but they eventually reach past explanation into unknowable appreciation. B+
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