It Felt Like Love is about a teenage girl who is fascinated with her more mature best friend and tags along with her best friend and her best friend’s boyfriend. She awkwardly sets her cap to an older boy who has a reputation as a bit of a lothario. Her father cares for her, but has a laissez-faire approach to child rearing. She also casually chats with a younger boy, who seems to be more effective than her at the fine art of flirting and chooses more age appropriate objects of affection and activities. There was a dog, but my concern was disproportionate to the actual danger that he faced.
It Felt Like Love is really about how a teenage girl grasps at what it means to be a woman and about mourning. I have no idea how It Felt Like Love got in my queue. Maybe It Felt Like Love was in a list of great movies made by female directors. Art is supposed to make you feel something, and It Felt Like Love succeeded in making me feel horror similar to the way that I felt when I watched Kids as a teenager. I’m not about that life, and neither is It Felt Like Love’s protagonist, but she desperately wants to be. I was appalled that anyone would subject herself to danger or abuse. Even though the atmosphere is thick with foreboding of sexual violence, it never happens.
It Felt Like Love depicts an ugly world even amidst the bucolic interludes. Her crush may have been rude, but he was the only sane person who called the protagonist on her creepy lurking. I was surprised that her best friend was fine with the protagonist watching her make out or lying next to her while she did. The best friend was not depicted as an exhibitionist, but her boundaries were odd. The only boundary that the best friend had was to discuss the end of a relationship.
It Felt Like Love was too bleak for my tastes. I would watch a slasher film than an emotionally eviscerating film like It Felt Like Love, especially after a long court day. Watching kids put themselves in danger even if there is none is too realistic for me to even theoretically enjoy.