Lovely Boy


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.

Cast

Production

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.

Release

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.

Reception

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.