69
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80CineVueChristopher MachellCineVueChristopher MachellYouth is as sentimental as it is accomplished, but Xiaogang's mastery both of broad sweep and intimate detail proves an impressive feat.
- 80The Hollywood ReporterClarence TsuiThe Hollywood ReporterClarence TsuiYouth is a whirl of grand, dramatic gestures.
- 80VarietyMaggie LeeVarietyMaggie LeeFeng employs traditional craftsmanship to draw a sweeping historical canvas with profound human upheavals that mirror virtues and flaws of the Chinese people, without ever losing sight of the personal experiences that he dramatizes with such acute sensuality.
- 75Washington PostMark JenkinsWashington PostMark JenkinsThe film’s themes mature from adolescent pettiness to adult regret, with several epilogues set well after the main events of the story.
- 70The New York TimesGlenn KennyThe New York TimesGlenn KennyAs a straight, sentimental melodrama, Youth works well. While there are a lot of conventional tropes, the cast enacts them with such fresh, tenderhearted sincerity that they regain some power.
- 70Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangLos Angeles TimesJustin ChangIf our understanding of the losses these characters have suffered feels incomplete, it’s hard to come away entirely unaffected as these men and women look back at their young adulthood and the whirlwind of historical change against which it played out.
- 60Screen DailyAllan HunterScreen DailyAllan HunterGalloping across the decades, the film becomes increasingly sketchy and superficial. There is so much detail and substance in the 1970s stretch of this epic that the twists of fate and rueful reflections of later years inevitably feel less authentic and closer to soap opera.
- 50RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsRogerEbert.comSimon AbramsThe filmmakers over-extend themselves to solicit empathy for their doomed protagonists. Youth is so unbearably nice that I eventually wished it were remade by misanthropes.