“Our best years”, a choral film that revives the Italian comedy of the 70s

Gabriele Muccino (An italian family) surfs on the buddy movie (movie of friends) in the continuity of Mario Monicelli (My dear friends) and Ettore Scola (The terrace). No reheating so far in Our best years which comes out Wednesday, December 29, since the generation staged is that of the years 1980-2020. A tender and romantic look at the past 40 years.

At 16, four friends from the 80s formed a small band. Over 40 years, the bonds evolve, some love each other, separate, all lose and meet again, actors and fruits of a new generation.

Gabriele Muccino claims to be the cinema he loves and adapts it to his time. By projecting his characters from the 80s to 2020, he reconnects with a look at the past, sometimes nostalgic, sometimes bitter, but resilient. His Italian quinquas also evoke the 30-year-old Americans of Friends first (Lawrence Kasdan, 1983) that will resume The Young Peril (1994) by Cédric Klapisch.

The Italian director adds an “epic” dimension to his staging, a generational fresco side, but the freshness of the characters remains. This feeling emanates from the liveliness that Muccino brings to the writing and directing. It doesn’t rain much in Our best years, solar film, while they are also those of Berlusconi, of reborn regionalism / nationalism and of corruption in broad daylight, in Italy and elsewhere.

If politics run through the film, it reflects more of a feeling. The quads who remained at the age of ten in My dear friends (1975), in the midst of the enchanted parenthesis of the 1970s, and the bitterness that rose to the surface of The terrace (1980), give way to fifty-year-olds who have matured since their adolescence. Their coach has dented, but they still have spontaneity and confidence. Without being a feel good movie, Our best years exudes a positivity, but measured, a sign of uncertain times.

Kind : Drama
Director: Gabriele Muccino
Actors : Pierfrancesco Favino, Micaela Ramazzotti, Kim Rossi Stuart
Country : Italy
Duration : 2h15
Exit : December 29, 2021
Distributer : ARP Selection

Synopsis: This is the story of four friends, told over forty years, in Italy, from the 1980s to today. The chronicle of their hopes, their disillusions, their loves, and above all, their friendship.