curzi_g Reviews

Nata per te (2023)

Love is all you need.

[8/10 · 15 February 2024]

"Born for You" is more than a denunciatory film, it is an intimate film. At the same time, it is also more than a political film, it's a reflection on the potential of LGBTQ families. Italy was the last country in the former Western Europe to legalize the unions of homosexual couples, and these unions are still not legally equal to marriages for heterosexual couples, effectively confirming that in Italy there are first-class and second-class citizens. This is also reflected in the adoption policy, as we can see in this important film. It is a film about changing the Law that involves and evolves in a close correlation with society. But above all this is a film about Love that has no boundaries. Because Law is what rules us, but Love is what makes us capable to live.

Hai mai avuto paura? (2023)

A popular ancient spooky story

[6/10 · 6 January 2024]

Undeniably, Have You Ever Been Scared?, which marks Ambra Principato's directorial debut, is a splendidly crafted film, which believes that cinema is made by actors, costumes and sets. It is a film that crosses the surface of horror, trying to stage the obsessions and anxieties of a script ready to explode. Well, in some ways, Have You Ever Been Scared? Is a film about writing, rather than substance. A respectable key, as the sense of anguish is evident, despite the emotional involvement being relative. On the other hand, the language chosen by Principato, whose meticulous passion in designing the context we cannot fail to applaud, slowly grows towards the final epilogue, freeing that fear that we want to speak out, analyzing what is "the most ancient form of emotion".

The Anto War (1999)

Quintessentially genuine.

[7/10 · 18 December 2023]

The asphyxiating atmosphere of the Italian province, the discomfort of being young and feeling useless, the desire of rebellion, the idealistic dreams of youth: The War of the Antò is the story of four punk youngsters from Montesilvano, a small town in the province of Pescara, central Italy, at the beginning of the '90s. They are all called Antò and the provincial life in which they live is too much for them, they can't handle it. A sincere choral tale of an Italian region often overlooked by cinema and/or entertainment literature. Acted very well by the four young protagonists, the film is enriched by funny dialogues and the amusing inflection of the Abruzzo dialect.

Cresceranno i carciofi a Mimongo (1996)

How to grow artichokes in Mimongo, Gabon.

[7/10 · 2 June 2023]

Casual and likeable, capable of making a virtue out of poverty, 'Will artichokes grow in Mimongo?' has the astuteness to put together old and new in a captivating assembly: on the one hand the juvenile jargon, a little sexual nonchalance ; on the other a positive character to identify with, that of the young man who does not want to bow to the moral meanness of metropolitan non-life. The air of the time is perceived in the relationships between the sexes, where it is always the female characters who hold the decision-making power on feelings and things to do. Not to mention the attractive power of a disheartening topic such as youth unemployment.

It has an ironic and iconic, amusing, and nonchalant trait. It reminds of American movie "Clerks" but seen from an Italian, Mediterranean point of view. In Italy people have salaries of starvation, but in the end you have the sun most everyday in a year. Everyone can afford a portion of pasta, so smile, the sun is shining.

Lord of the Ants (2022)

A necessary movie

[8/10 · 14 February 2023]

Gianni Amelio brings to the screen the story of Aldo Braibanti, an intellectual who at the end of the 1960s was convicted of plagiarizing Ettore, a young man who frequented the Tower, Braibanti's cultural centre. The intellectual from Piacenza is played well by Luigi Lo Cascio, but applause certainly goes to the young Leonardo Maltese who plays Ettore. The usually versatile Elio Germano takes on the role of Ennio Flaiano, the journalist of the Unità, a Communist newspaper, who immediately understands the delicacy of this process. The issues relating to civil rights begin to arise, but the country's culture is still anchored to the Catholic tradition, and Fascist heritage, which does not give any space to homosexuality. It is a film of shocking brutality, profound ignorance and Catholic bigotry. Anyone who thinks that things have changed consistently in Italy since then is grossly mistaken. It is sufficient to live in any of the small Italian provincial towns to still feel the same air of profound obscurantism and Catholic suffocation.

The Hanging Sun (2022)

Beautiful landscape, poor script and direction

[6/10 · 13 December 2022]

The Hanging Sun is a noir thriller set in the Norwegian fjords that revolves around the complex, and often conflicting, relationship between fathers and children and the latter's desire for emancipation. The interpretations of Alessandro Borghi and the rest of the cast are convincing, it is a pity that the actors have to move in a narration devoid of bite and often predictable.

The screenplay of The Hanging Sun seems to take the viewer's empathy with the characters for granted, especially with the one played by Borghi, whose background leaves rather indifferent. The choice of the flashback structure, with the editing juxtaposing moments from the man's past with sequences set in the village that tell the present of Lea and her son Caleb, should convey a tension that however does not arrive. A listless direction, and a somewhat clumsy management of emotional climaxes - including the one that leads to the final confrontation between the protagonist and his father - does not help to enter the story; at the end of the vision, of The Hanging Sun remains only the charm of a location on the edge of the world immortalized with a visual taste that does not find its equivalent in a solid story capable of involving. The result, unfortunately, is poor in substance and emotion.

Ai confini del male (2021)

It could have been so much better ...

[6/10 · 3 November 2021]

The interpretations of Edoardo Pesce and Massimo Popolizio give strength to the two characters.

The general structure of the staging and management of the individual scenes is functional to the story, but the script fails to elevate the narrative material.

The direction, all too static, has few flashes.

For the entire duration of the story, excessive use is made of narrative clichés typical of the genre that tend to trivialize and make the story insipid.

Most of the dialogues are absolutely incomprehensible even to Italian native speakers. Italy is famous for having the best voice actors but when the film is directly recited in Italian by contemporary Italian actors, it is difficult to understand the words that are not well articulated.

Luna Park (2013)

so bad it's almost impossible to imagine something worse...

[4/10 · 30 March 2021]

The worst movie ever seen so far... terrible writing, terrible acting, not even the vision of some juicy models and their attributes makes this movie worth watching. Spare your time, watch something else. Whatever is better than that.