Huh. I guess this is one of those films that I probably like more than a lot of others (at least those who have seen Me and You outside of the US, here it never got an official release after a very limited run in NYC in 2014 I missed). Bertolucci, in his mastery with an eye that feels alive without being outlandish, manages to convey that extremely intense, sometimes confused, always passionate, vulnerable, stupid, immature sense of one's self and the world around when one is at 14 years old.
Maybe it is just from my time as a dipshit loner 14 year old, certainly not always in agreement with my parental units, who felt most at peace - or actually in unrest but at least it can be an escape inside - witp rock music and a pair of headphones (I didnt have the ant-farm though, or the Armadillo, poor little guy hope he or she wad OK, I digress). Or maybe it's the honest, definitely uncomfortable, almost pathological depiction of a love-hate bond with a sibling who can seem so bright and wise one moment and is a furnace of bile the next (the addiction and withdrawal, like a quarter of this film is a young lady withdrawing cold turkey and Tea Falco is committed to a 1000% and God bless her for it).
The film is limited by being set largely in a basement, but again the camerawork is always curious and active and definitely on edge, like you can feel through the lens choices there's unbridled hormones and a love for 80s and 90s rock glowing through it all, and while I don't know if I'd call Olmo Antinori as profound a performer as Bertolucci has had in his career that's also a tall order to reach up to. For what he's asked to do here, which is to play an angry introvert who doesn't know what to do with himself and slowly comes out of his angst-addled and probably OCD packed shell, he commits to the bit and is compelling.
I can get why some seem to be annoyed by his acting (or in part the character himself) since he is yelling a lot and acting out, but I found a strange empathy with him despite (or partly because) of the small scale yet still extremes of the premise of the story; it's about being okay with the troubles that go through your mind every day, especially if it's not all that complicated (he seems to live a fairly decent middle class upbringing), and sometimes an outside perspective is the only way to change.
I don't know if Lorenzo changes by the time we get that 400 Blows inspired final freeze frame, though I don't think Bertolucci means to suggest he is in as much despair as Antoine Doinel. On the contrary, he seems to have more of a look like (can't believe this just popped in my head) Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2 at the end of the "Raindrops" montage. What will worry him now?
He's gone through a helluva week he didn't expect to have with his half sister - and for the record, no incest, in case you were wondering considering some of the director's past work (from Before the Revolution to the Dreamers), he and I assume the author of the book are after a more fundamental exploration of a sibling push and pull than that reduction - and he's come out the other end understanding himself better. Maybe. Or at least her. And that life is not going to get much easier so time to "grow up." If the film does get so anxious like its character a couple of times, it helps that it all comes together in the last twenty minutes or so.
Not a great final film, but a good one and I'm glad I finally got to see it and be one of maybe dozens I tell you dozens of voices that say it's worth a look, especially if you've gone so far into Bertolucci's body of work that just a couple of the obscurities are left. And now I'm in the mood for some Red Hot Chili Peppers!
Maybe it is just from my time as a dipshit loner 14 year old, certainly not always in agreement with my parental units, who felt most at peace - or actually in unrest but at least it can be an escape inside - witp rock music and a pair of headphones (I didnt have the ant-farm though, or the Armadillo, poor little guy hope he or she wad OK, I digress). Or maybe it's the honest, definitely uncomfortable, almost pathological depiction of a love-hate bond with a sibling who can seem so bright and wise one moment and is a furnace of bile the next (the addiction and withdrawal, like a quarter of this film is a young lady withdrawing cold turkey and Tea Falco is committed to a 1000% and God bless her for it).
The film is limited by being set largely in a basement, but again the camerawork is always curious and active and definitely on edge, like you can feel through the lens choices there's unbridled hormones and a love for 80s and 90s rock glowing through it all, and while I don't know if I'd call Olmo Antinori as profound a performer as Bertolucci has had in his career that's also a tall order to reach up to. For what he's asked to do here, which is to play an angry introvert who doesn't know what to do with himself and slowly comes out of his angst-addled and probably OCD packed shell, he commits to the bit and is compelling.
I can get why some seem to be annoyed by his acting (or in part the character himself) since he is yelling a lot and acting out, but I found a strange empathy with him despite (or partly because) of the small scale yet still extremes of the premise of the story; it's about being okay with the troubles that go through your mind every day, especially if it's not all that complicated (he seems to live a fairly decent middle class upbringing), and sometimes an outside perspective is the only way to change.
I don't know if Lorenzo changes by the time we get that 400 Blows inspired final freeze frame, though I don't think Bertolucci means to suggest he is in as much despair as Antoine Doinel. On the contrary, he seems to have more of a look like (can't believe this just popped in my head) Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2 at the end of the "Raindrops" montage. What will worry him now?
He's gone through a helluva week he didn't expect to have with his half sister - and for the record, no incest, in case you were wondering considering some of the director's past work (from Before the Revolution to the Dreamers), he and I assume the author of the book are after a more fundamental exploration of a sibling push and pull than that reduction - and he's come out the other end understanding himself better. Maybe. Or at least her. And that life is not going to get much easier so time to "grow up." If the film does get so anxious like its character a couple of times, it helps that it all comes together in the last twenty minutes or so.
Not a great final film, but a good one and I'm glad I finally got to see it and be one of maybe dozens I tell you dozens of voices that say it's worth a look, especially if you've gone so far into Bertolucci's body of work that just a couple of the obscurities are left. And now I'm in the mood for some Red Hot Chili Peppers!