It Felt Like Love (June 12th at the Cleveland Cinematheque)

[IT FELT LIKE LOVE screens Thursday, June 12th at 8:10 pm at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque.]

Review by Milan Paurich

“Just touch it; it’s not gonna bite.” That’s the opening line of dialogue in IT FELT LIKE LOVE, director Eliza Hittman’s strikingly assured feature debut about teenage hormones, peer pressure and the dangers that sometime occur when those factors collide. The “it” is the penis of Patrick (Jesse Cordasco), boy toy du jour of 15-year-old New York City heartbreaker Chiara (Giovanna Salimeni), and the words are spoken in a swimming pool where they’ve ostensibly gone to cool off their mutual heat. Fat chance.

Observing the dynamics—sexual and otherwise—between Chiara and Patrick is Chiara’s slightly younger, wildly impressionable best friend, Lila (Gina Piersanti). Chiara may only be a year older than Lila, but she’s infinitely more sophisticated when it comes to boys, sex and love. Well, maybe not that sophisticated. She’s definitely more experienced, though. When describing the clumsy oral sex technique of a recent boyfriend, Chiara sounds as jaded as Sasha Grey. Since she’s still a virgin (bummer!) and as innocent as any Brooklyn teen can be in the age of smartphones and internet porn, Lila is desperate to find a boy—any boy really—to call her own. The fact that she’s being raised by a well-meaning if ineffectual dad (Lila’s mom died of breast cancer not long ago) makes the prospect of receiving any useful parental guidance remote at best.