rainabosniac I watched this after having watched "Beach Rats" (which I absolutely loved and can't recommend enough) because I found Eliza Hittman to be a great storyteller and director. This movie definitely feels like a long lost cousin of "Beach Rats" and even though it gave off the same feel as BR did, I didn't find it nearly as good. To say that Eliza Hittman improved her cinematography skills would be an understatement. She definitely stayed true to the way she directs and writes these movies, and if I am to see her work again, I'll definitely recognise it.The actors delivered great performances, with such depth, that by not saying much you could understand them perfectly. This movie is definitely very slow-paced and there's not as much plot as there is thought and feeling. What first popped into mind while I was watching this was that it resembled a short-story, or rather an adaptation of one, rather than one of a novel.It still was absolutely stunning, even though, as I have already said, there was something I didn't quite like about it although I can't put my finger on it. If you want something similar, yet better and definitely more original (yes, originality was something this movie lacked) watch Beach Rats, so much better.

Turfseer "It Felt Like Love" is first-time writer-director Eliza Hittman's coming-of-age meditation on a Brooklyn teenager's burgeoning sexuality. The teenager in question is Lila who lives with her permissive, aging hippie of a father and occasionally brags about imaginary sexual exploits to Nate, a boy who lives in the neighborhood. The mother is not a factor, having died of cancer some years before.Lila spends most of her time with her good friend Chiara and her boyfriend, Patrick. While with them at the beach, she makes the acquaintance of Sammy, an older college student who she ends up pursuing. When Sammy gets drunk and passes out, Lila crawls into bed with him. The next morning Sammy can't remember anything and Lila implies that maybe they had sex together.Mike D'Angelo, writing in "Dissolve," bemoans the generic nature of the world Lila inhabits: "Lila exists in an art-movie void, with no friends or interests that don't directly reflect her predicament; the film is set in the present (characters text each other, etc.), but so strenuously avoids any sort of cultural specificity that just a few revisions could shift it to 1987…That sort of sparseness can be deliberate—a means of conveying timelessness—but here it just seems like a failure of imagination, turning Lila into an emblem rather than a girl."Eventually Lila finds herself over her head when she finds herself alone with the older guys. Matt Seitz of "RogerEbert.com" describes the encounter but remains dissatisfied: "Several scenes in which Lila hangs out with Sammy and his buddies in a man-cave are mortifying. She is clearly an interloper, and they treat her like one, and somehow their snickering indifference and dimwit innuendo are part of the male-female dance in this world. Lila's closed-off expressions suggest that she if not welcomes, at least expects to be treated with contempt. These rec room scenes rank with the most pessimistic depictions of teen sexuality in recent cinema. Yet however heartfelt and keenly observed this pessimism is, it becomes monotonous. A.A. Dowd of the "A.V. Club" gets to the essence of "It Felt Like Love's" limitations: "Lila, for all the authentic awkwardness Piersanti breathes into her, is defined so entirely by her mission—embarked upon with an equal measure of anxiety and anticipation—that she never quite comes alive as a character.""It Felt Like Love" has some impressive cinematography but Ms. Hittman's one-note portrait of teenage obsession, prevents us from believing that these are real people. Nonetheless, I see good things for this director in the future, as this film still shows potential.

RealSmiff There's a lot of talent here, Gina Piersanti may be a future star. Great editing, great camera work, solid directing, decent acting all around. Reminds me again of Lukas Moodyson and other European directors, there's some of that dogme style that's fairly unusual in American films. For a first feature this is promising.But I'm not rating it higher because it's so monotonous and flat. Other films have told similar stories with humour and fun. I'm not sure if it was fully intentional or not, probably it was. one of those films that's better after you've seen it, if you can make it through - one of the longer "good" 1hr20 movies i've seen? Also slightly awkward to watch as a guy. I'm presuming it's somewhat autobiographical? Will be interested to see what the director does next.

jimlacy2003 Like the title says this movie was..well booorrriinnng.I checked the "spoiler" box just to be safe, but really I don't give much of the "plot" here.Kind of interesting at points, reminds me of the movie "KIDS" a little.A lot of it pretty depressing really. Most of the people seem to be very down-tone, uncouth, and pretty indifferent, etc. In particular the father. He doesn't seem to care about his daughter at all. It seems to me if she just had at least one supportive person in her (the protagonist's) life, someone sane she could talk to, then she'd be doing a hell of a lot better in her life. Life sucks if you live with a bunch of zombies and in the absence of love. Maybe that was the moral of the story..?On a side note the two rave reviews about this movie appear to be shills that have never reviewed any other movie.At any rate you will probably want to skip this movie as you could probably find something much more fun to watch..