vince_cadena Review of Lymelife

Lymelife (2008)

Excellent debut film and the first great film of this year.

[8/10 · 3 May 2009]

Going into this film I knew a little about it, so give you a good idea on what it's about, though I'll just say this is a coming of age film set in the late 70's in Long Island. Kieran Culkin stars in this impressive debut film from filmmakers Derek and Steve Martini, he plays Jimmy Bartlett a normal high schooler that fantasizes about the girl next door, gets beat up and has to deal with his parents and all their drama. I really liked this movie I found it to be heartwarming and funny at times but when I say heartwarming I don't mean in a corny way, you really grow to care about these people. The film has really nice direction, that isn't too flashy, think The Ice Storm meets Scorsese. The music is really good and they use an number of great songs from the period, from Boston to Bob Dylan to Elton John and even some old Scorsese-esquire Motown. The reason to see this film isn't for the direction or cinematography both are nice though. The reason to see this film is for the excellent script and perfect acting. Alec Baldwin and Timothy Hutton are great but the real standout performances come from Jill Hennessey who I want to see more of after this, Kieran Culkin, Rory Culkin channeling a young Deniro and Emma Roberts. Emma Roberts is known for doing family movies and TV shows but after this I feel like she's destined to be one best American actresses of her generation if she can just do more movies like this, shes really lovely an charming and I need to see her in more movies like this. This isn't the best film of the year and it might not even make my top ten but I really enjoyed this film, being a huge fan of Scorsese I loved all the little homages to him and being a big fan of The Ice Storm a far more serious film, this film really worked for me and I can definitely see myself buying this on DVD and showing it to friends. I really hope this movie does well enough so that it gets a wider release because I think if people just gave this film a chance they would love it too, don't take my word for it go out and see it. Also I felt an affinity to the main character, a lot of what he went through I went through too at that point in my life. Lymelife isn't your typical coming of age indie dramedy,if you liked The Ice Storm or Scorsese I think you'll like this. Highly recommended.