Youth, Film Review. Picturehouse@F.A.C.T., Liverpool.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel, Rachael Weisz, Jane Fonda, Paul Dano, Alexander Macqueen, Chloe Pirrie, Madalina Diana Ghenea, Gabriella Belisario, Roly Serrano, Nate Dern, Alex Beckett, Mark Gessner, Tom Lipinski, Luna Zimic Mijovic, Ed Stoppard, Paloma Faith, Heidi Maria Glössner, Helmut Förnbacher, Sumi Jo.

Life, if you’re fortunate, is made of many facets of ingenuity and peace, as well as the insanity that prevails through being a fully paid up member of the Human Race. Music though surely is the most over-riding of all emotions to get tangled up in and to be able to have running through your mind, after all, even in the solitude of an arid desert exists music and poetry as the sands shift with the wind.

Music and life is not the sole preserve of the young or those to whom Youth bestows its magical qualities upon, neither is the wonderfully absurd and in Paolo Sorrentino’s magical film Youth, the beauty of age is rediscovered and the celebration, desire and heartache of growing older is explored with poetic consequences.

Youth is an authentic tribute to how life can seem when viewed properly, when the abandon of the material is clutched at and how creativity can still run through the veins of those who attach meaning to the everyday occurrence. The film demonstrates keenly of how the insignificance of a single action can manifest itself into gigantic proportions and that a single meeting between old friends can lead down a road of no return. Youth is as it seems, a series of mimicry from the young to the old and one that soon starts to fade into a mistimed memory.

It has to be noted that Youth should also be seen as Michael Caine’s finest film in many years, whilst never ever giving anything less than his most consummate on screen, Michael Caine delivers a piece of art in this film that ranks as highly as his performance in the classic Zulu or any of his 1970s big box office hits.

With support from the excellent Harvey Keitel, a stunning entrance and exit by Jane Fonda and Paul Dano confirming the accolades heaped upon him as the young Brian Wilson in the film Love and Mercy with his excellent take as Jimmy Tree, Youth is a polished, absurdly beautiful and highly entertaining film which captures the very essence of life in all its glory and whilst some won’t appreciate the dance, it is after all only because they don’t hear the music that surrounds them.

Ian D. Hall