The Dreamers

When Isabelle and Theo invite Matthew to stay with them, what begins as a casual friendship ripens into a sensual voyage of discovery and desire in which nothing is off limits and everything is possible.

Bertolucci's provocative period piece lands somewhere between admired and merely appreciated — critics found its atmosphere and eroticism vividly rendered, but a meaningful number felt it stirred less thought and feeling than a film about May '68 and sexual awakening ought to. A.O. Scott and Roger Ebert were enthusiastic outliers; the broader critical field was more cautious, sensing that the film luxuriates in its own sensuality at the expense of genuine provocation.