4.5 out of 5 Stars
Director Eliza Hittman
Starring Gina Piersanti, Giovanna Salimeni and Ronen Rubinstein
Category Next
Recommended to Those looking a painfully frank and brilliantly insightful exploration of adolescent loneliness.

Lila (Gina Piersanti) is a fourteen-year-old girl who feels invisible to the world. She spends her summer days on the beach as a third wheel to her best friend, Chiara, and her latest boyfriend. Desperate to find a love of her own Lila chases after Sammy, an older boy with a less-than-favorable reputation.

It Felt Like Love is a coming-of-age drama without a safety net. It takes a hard look at what it is like to be innocent in a world that frowns upon naivet. It can be incredibly difficult to watch, but impossible to tear yourself away from because writer/director Eliza Hittmans has created a intricate, fragile and loveable character in Lila. Gina Piersantis performance is heart wrenchingly perfect. She embodies the loneliness and need of Lila with such an exactness that it is hard to believe that this is her first feature film. Its like watching Carey Mulligan in An Education all over again.

-Ryan Michael Painter

(Copyright 2013 Sinclair Broadcast Group)