You Can Live Forever

This film has various storylines the interconnect and a very good cast that shows the complexities of the people involved. And, one of the writers/directors comes from the community (in more ways than one) it is portraying. So, there is a sense of honesty, truth, and understanding that is well-earned. I enjoyed it.

The film involves a teenage girl who comes to live with an aunt who belongs to a Jehovah's Witness community in Quebec. She falls in love with a believer while befriending a guy outside it who probably would like to be her girlfriend, but knows it is not to be. So, they are friends. As the review says, the characters are not caricatures.

The title concerns the belief that we are living in the end times and that true happiness (and eternal life) is soon to come. The girl who believes this assumes the two will be forever happy in that time.  They might not be able to be together in the short term.  But, when the new age comes, they will e together. This is a matter of fitting things into beliefs that is pretty creative. 

The review notes that that film isn't clear on its time period until there is a dropped hint (that I didn't catch when I watched it on demand) that it was the 1990s.  I think it is apparent that it is not the 21st Century since there is no reference to personal computers, AOL, or anything like that. She played a video game with her guy friend, but he had no computer or smartphone.

Anyway, I don't think the exact timing matters since even today I assume being a lesbian would be a problem in that community.  I don't know how they "talked like they are in the 2020s" at any rate.  How did we talk differently in the 1990s exactly?  It took place in Canada so I don't know exactly how one speaks the 1990s there but here the 21st Century has various current concerns that probably would pop up somehow.  

Don't think there was some "amateur" feel to any of the acting. The whole thing had a sense of quiet realness in my view.  Maybe a few rough edges.  Nothing too notable. Anyway, good film.