Retrospective Film Review

Youth (2015) • 10 Years Later — a graceful yet pretentious interpretation of old age and wistfulness

A retired orchestra conductor is on vacation with his daughter and his film director best friend when he receives an invitation from Queen Elizabeth II to perform…

In Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, the realm of the living has been (mostly) razed, having been replaced by a patchwork of conversations — mostly predicated on moments now lost — and fantasy. Best friends Fred Ballinger (Michael Caine) and Mick Boyle (Harvey Keitel) are in a particularly contemplative mood during their stay at a hotel by the Swiss Alps. The picturesque scenery and lavish accommodation offer the pair ample time to reflect on how their lives could possibly have brought them to this juncture. The answer to that question proves surprisingly slippery,

Youth is a lyrical, elastic work of art, where fiction and reality blend so seamlessly that one is better off accepting that nothing is strictly literal in this fantasy tale. Fred and Mick feel…