It Felt Like Love

A beautifully observed portrait of awakening sexuality in a young Brooklyn teen, It Felt Like Love is "an important landmark ... in movies about female adolescence" (Los Angeles Times).Fourteen-year-old Lila (Gina Piersanti) is embarrassed by her sexual inexperience, while her pretty best friend Chiara spends her summer making out with her new beau. Eager to prove her desirability, the shy and retiring Lila focuses her attention on local lothario Sammy. She approaches him with clumsy come-ons, and Sammy swats her away. But Lila keeps pushing into the world of Sammy's hyper-macho friends, where sex is less about exploration than intimidation and power.It Felt Like Love is "gorgeously shot" (NY Post) in the streets and humid apartments of South Brooklyn, perfectly capturing the hothouse atmosphere of indolent summer afternoons at home. It "seductively conjures a moment when trying on identities can be a fast track to self-knowledge. Or self-destruction" (New York Times).