Youth (2015)

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Fred Ballinger	Michael Caine
Mick Boyle	Harvey Keitel
Lena Ballinger	Rachel Weisz
Jimmy Tree	Paul Dano
Brenda Morel	Jane Fonda
Diego Maradona	Roly Serrano
Queen's emissary	Alex Macqueen

Review

Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel and Jane Fonda star in this introspective film from Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino (La Grande Belleza). Mistitled, you say? Well, the film is more about perspective and reminiscence than youth, but Sorrentino's melancholic point is that it is our youth that define our subsequent perception of the world around us; we see everything through a filter made up of all our previous experiences. The friendship between Keitel, an ageing director, and Caine, a retired composer, is the narrative and thematic focal point of the film, but it's the wonderful use of music and the many artistic compositions that is Sorrentino's biggest achievement here. He may not have anything ground-breaking to say in the end, but he's able to create a rather wondrous backdrop for us to take a step back and look at life from a different angle. And there are a few laughs in here as well, most notably through a fantastic spoof on football icon Diego Maradona, played by Roly Serrano.