90/100
"Toof, toof, toof..."
That sound is actually how the movie starts, along with a wide shot of 1980s Naples. For an instant, that shot bores you out to death, maybe because there's literally nothing else to see but some random boat and some pretty shot of a clamorous, tumultous city. Looking back at it now, it almost has a nostalgic effect to it. Because that depiction of that specific shot isn't wrong per se, at the end of the day, it IS a random shot of some loud city with a boat snuck in it, but it has so much more to it that it makes it not feel entirely right... That's exactly how I feel about the movie in general.
Sorrentino's filmmaking has this fame of being "custom made"; he makes movies that may only expound to him so personally since they speak so particularly of an almost exclusive feeling made for him, but at the same time, that same individuality puts the same effect forward to so many of us at the same time...
It's almost impossible to give this movie a plot summary, because it almost feels like it's leaving so much behind, but at the same time it isn't; this movie isn't JUST about a boy struggling to find an identity when tragedy struck, but that's also what the movie is about.
The plot itself, as a result of feeling so volatile, feels like it's in control of everything while hiding that unpredictability throughout. A movie that deals with themes of leaving things behind in an unpredictable time that when, looking back at them, that same nostalgic feeling (the same I had with that freaking shot) kicks in for a time that feels so recent yet so far away at the same time... It's like that boy's experience is so similar to MY experience watching this movie, even when they don't look alike, but do at the same time.
"Toof, toof, toof..."
That sound is actually how the movie starts, along with a wide shot of 1980s Naples. For an instant, that shot bores you out to death, maybe because there's literally nothing else to see but some random boat and some pretty shot of a clamorous, tumultous city. Looking back at it now, it almost has a nostalgic effect to it. Because that depiction of that specific shot isn't wrong per se, at the end of the day, it IS a random shot of some loud city with a boat snuck in it, but it has so much more to it that it makes it not feel entirely right... That's exactly how I feel about the movie in general.
Sorrentino's filmmaking has this fame of being "custom made"; he makes movies that may only expound to him so personally since they speak so particularly of an almost exclusive feeling made for him, but at the same time, that same individuality puts the same effect forward to so many of us at the same time...
It's almost impossible to give this movie a plot summary, because it almost feels like it's leaving so much behind, but at the same time it isn't; this movie isn't JUST about a boy struggling to find an identity when tragedy struck, but that's also what the movie is about.
The plot itself, as a result of feeling so volatile, feels like it's in control of everything while hiding that unpredictability throughout. A movie that deals with themes of leaving things behind in an unpredictable time that when, looking back at them, that same nostalgic feeling (the same I had with that freaking shot) kicks in for a time that feels so recent yet so far away at the same time... It's like that boy's experience is so similar to MY experience watching this movie, even when they don't look alike, but do at the same time.