| Lovely Boy | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Francesco Lettieri |
| Screenplay by | Francesco Lettieri Peppe Fiore |
| Produced by | Nicola Giuliano Francesca Cima Carlotta Calori |
| Starring | Andrea Carpenzano |
| Cinematography | Gianluca Palma |
| Edited by | Mauro Rodella |
| Music by | Paco Martinelli |
Release date |
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| Language | Italian |
Lovely Boy is a 2021 Italian drama film co-written and directed by Francesco Lettieri and starring Andrea Carpenzano. It premiered at the 78th edition of the Venice Film Festival.
 | This article needs a plot summary. (October 2024) |
The screenplay was written during the second month of lockdown because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Principal photography started in April 2021. The film was produced by Indigo Film in co-production with Vision Distribution and Sky Italia. It was shot between Rome and Trentino-Alto Adige.
The film premiered at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, as the closing film of the Giornate degli Autori sidebar. It had a limited release in Italian cinemas on 13 September 2021.
La Stampa critic Gianmaria Tammaro wrote that the film "tells a story of drug addiction without lapsing into qualunquism or clichés; the characters are real, concrete, and multifaceted" and it's "a film that does not need to shout, that knows how to maintain a balance, and that closes without really closing: the final scene is almost a new beginning, not a conclusion; and there is never, even for a second, a judgmental or patronizing tone".
Amber Wilkinson from Eye for Film gave the film three points out of five, noting that "Aside from the slightly unusual music scene setting [...] there's little here to distinguish this from many similar addiction tales. [...] The heart of Lettieri's heart is definitely in the right place, but it doesn't have a particularly strong or unique beat."
For his performance in this film and in Swing Ride, Andrea Carpenzano received a Nastro d'Argento nomination for best actor.
