Congress has cut federal funding for public media — a $3.4 million loss for LAist. We count on readers like you to protect our nonprofit newsroom. Become a monthly member and sustain local journalism.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
The Sex Life Of The American Teenager Explored In Fantastic 'It Felt Like Love'
Without declaring it a trend of some sort, it is a good sign when it's not even the end of March and two of the most noteworthy films of the year are directorial debuts from women. Both films are also coming of age stories; the first, In Bloom, was Nana Ekvtimishvili's semi-autobiographical snapshot of two teenagers during the Georgian Civil War she co-directed with her husband Simon Gross. The second, Eliza Hittman's It Felt Like Love, focuses an adolescent Brooklynite. Where In Bloom is a parable for coming of age tale not just for the two girls at the heart of its story but also Georgia after the fall of the Soviet Union, It Felt Like Love is far more intimate and specific.
Also making her debut with It Felt Like Love is Gina Piersanti, who takes on the role of 14-year-old Lila. Puberty appears to only have just started to take control of Lila's body and mind, as she spends a summer in Brooklyn following around and curiously peering at her older, more sexually mature friend Chiara (Giovanna Salimeni) and her boyfriend Patrick (Jesse Cordasco). It Felt Like Love ambles along with a lazy sense of aimlessness fitting for the summer of a young high-schooler. New York hasn't seemed this sweltering on the screen since that red hot summer of Spike Lee's Do The Right Thing in 1989. But instead of racial tensions boiling over, it's teenage hormones.
Chiara and Patrick are unable to keep their hands off each other, and Lila's eyes are drawn to the bare skin of their bodies in swimsuits. Her gaze is depicted through Sean Porter's dreamy cinematography, curves and flesh focused in tightly to the point of near abstraction. It's never perverse or leering; Lila's emergent curiosity for the opposite sex and the act of sex is regarded with respect and never seen as shameful. To hopefully satisfy this desire she entangles herself with a boy far too old and dumb for herself, the thuggish Sammy (Ronen Rubenstein) who spends his time working the register at an always-empty pool hall or smoking a joint with his boys at home.
Lila is far too smart to get herself involved but she just can't help herself; she knows this, we know this, and the film knows this. The menace of danger hangs over every interaction between Lila and Sammy, and the audience is left helpless as we watch Lila navigate the treacherous waters of being a young woman in a society of patriarchal and structural violence. It's the mistake every teenager knows they've made when they reflect back on their past, but It Felt Like Love never feels judgmental toward Lila and her decisions.
Support for LAist comes from
When It Felt Like Love emerges on the screen, the first shot we are greeted with is Lila's face peering at the camera behind a blank expression and painted over with far too much sunscreen. She's at the beach, and the comparison to that famous final shot of François Truffaut's The 400 Blows, the most famous of all bildungsroman directorial debuts, is not just invited but also demanded. This audacity is the first sign of a supreme confidence and talent behind the camera in Hittman that unfolds throughout the duration of It Felt Like Love, and hopefully for the rest of a fruitful career.
It Felt Like Love opens today at the Downtown Independent.
As Editor-in-Chief of our newsroom, I’m extremely proud of the work our top-notch journalists are doing here at LAist. We’re doing more hard-hitting watchdog journalism than ever before — powerful reporting on the economy, elections, climate and the homelessness crisis that is making a difference in your lives. At the same time, it’s never been more difficult to maintain a paywall-free, independent news source that informs, inspires, and engages everyone.
Simply put, we cannot do this essential work without your help. Federal funding for public media has been clawed back by Congress and that means LAist has lost $3.4 million in federal funding over the next two years. So we’re asking for your help. LAist has been there for you and we’re asking you to be here for us.
We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you.
No matter where you stand on the political spectrum, press freedom is at the core of keeping our nation free and fair. And as the landscape of free press changes, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust, but the amount of reader support we receive will help determine how strong of a newsroom we are going forward to cover the important news from our community.
Please take action today to support your trusted source for local news with a donation that makes sense for your budget.
Thank you for your generous support and believing in independent news.
Chip in now to fund your local journalism
(
LAist
)
Trending on LAist
-
Isolated showers can still hit the L.A. area until Friday as remnants from the tropical storm move out. -
First aspiring spectators must register online, then later in 2026 there will be a series of drawings. -
It's thanks to Tropical Storm Mario, so also be ready for heat and humidity, and possibly thunder and lightning. -
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass suspended a state law allowing duplexes, calling more housing unsafe. But in Altadena, L.A. County leaders say these projects could be key for rebuilding. -
![A Black woman sits at a dais with a flag in the background. A name placard in front of her reads: Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kell[um].](https://scpr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/5425437/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6298x3897+0+0/resize/640x396!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscpr-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F76%2F00%2Febed9a7a4fbd9e5ba12997e51d59%2Fgettyimages-1258669633.jpg)
L.A. County investigators have launched a probe into allegations about Va Lecia Adams Kellum and people she hired at the L.A. Homeless Services Authority. -
This measure on the Nov. 4, 2025, California ballot is part of a larger battle for control of the U.S. House of Representatives next year.
![A Black woman sits at a dais with a flag in the background. A name placard in front of her reads: Dr. Va Lecia Adams Kell[um].](https://scpr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/45c201e/2147483647/strip/true/crop/6298x3894+0+0/resize/786x486!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fscpr-brightspot.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2F76%2F00%2Febed9a7a4fbd9e5ba12997e51d59%2Fgettyimages-1258669633.jpg)
Best of LAist