Very reminiscent of The Dreamers

You're right, the differences are great, and The Dreamers was indeed more serious or 'darker'.

But I still feel like, in a way, it was almost the same story, but set in a different time and place, and viewed through a different lens.

Louis Garrel specializes in films that have 'ménage à trois' scenarios so I saw his appearance as a reference to his work as an actor. When he appeared, I laughed out loud because I thought of all his other movies involving love triangle relationships.

Please. A "real" film? I'm sorry, but Bertolucci is a pretentious pervert, incapable of subtlety or humor, who uses actors as pawns to play out his own sexual fantasies. Nobody would ever have given him a second look if he wasn't lucky enough to be acquainted with Vittorio Storaro. Storaro didn't even work on that film, and frankly, I have no use for it.

"Heartbeats" is far from perfect, but at least Dolan seems to have a genuine understanding of human emotion, and how to bring it out of his cast. He might've been half-responsible for a few beautiful images over the years, but Bertolucci has never made a film with as much truth as this one. Dolan's only in his early twenties, and he needs more practice, but this film is far from "garbage." I agree it might be a bit narcissistic to cast himself, but hey, he actually gives a pretty good performance.

Besides - this is a film that I love despite its technical imperfections, because of the honesty and accuracy of the story and the characters, and because the director actually has a sense of humor about what he's doing. On the other hand, the technical perfection of Bertolucci's films does little to distract me from his cold, self-serious, empty storytelling and poorly drawn characters.

I've only seen the trailer to Heartbeats but Bertolucci's The Dreamers immediately came to mind. I love that film (and the novelization - which is actually better, I think), and makes me want to see this one - whether it's less serious or not.