In Gina Piersanti, also making her feature debut, Hittman has found the perfect actress to portray the difficult undertaking of growing up, or at least trying to.
Overview
A gauzy summer in South Brooklyn. Lila, an awkward adolescent girl, passes her time breaking into beach homes and tagging along on dates between her pretty friend Chiara and Chiara's new boyfriend, Patrick. Lila decides this will be the summer she loses her virginity, too—her interest is piqued when she meets Sammy, an older boy reputed to sleep with just about anyone. Yet Lila's attempts at sexual conquest risk taking her beyond her limits, and into dangerous uncharted territory.
Director and cast
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
Hittman draws attention to the pervasive cultural forces (rap music, Internet pornography, suggestive dancing on TV) that present young girls as sexual objects, making the scenes of exploitation seem sadly inevitable.
Rarely has the zone between girlhood and womanhood been captured with such urgent honesty than in Eliza Hittman's superb teen drama "It Felt Like Love."
It's easy to be seduced by the loosely observational vibe of the movie, even as its tale of a shrinking violet struggling not to be a late bloomer fails to strike more than a single note of dismay.
Gorgeously shot in Brooklyn's beachfront neighborhoods and devoid of easy sentimentality, "It Felt Like Love" features realistic performances all around, understandable given the cast of mostly first-time actors.
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