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Reviews
Naples Never Dies... It Shoots! (2012)
True Punk Rock Cinema
True punk rock cinema has never been more blistering or bloated with schizophrenic meanings than writer-director Aaron Stielstra's latest movie. It's so controversial, he even adopted a pseudonym, Spartaco Castelluci, to escape the protest groups at its various screenings.
Not unlike early John Waters offering, here the characters take precedent over a melodramatic plot that is almost impossible to follow. Yet with such a colorful cast, and the film's moments of sheer hilarity, the only people probably complaining are the self-important hipsters. If you demand humorless product, or applaud banal, kitschy, or pre-meditated attempts at "culty" affirmation, this movie will not be your plate of David Lynch or Richard Linklater goopy, animated philosophy. This is not even a movie the Warhol/Paul Morrisey crowd would have endorsed, as the amount of anger on screen seems to be channeled into some form of anti-audience presentation only GG Allin and the Murder Junkies would understand.
Definitely a step up professionally for Stielstra, it's a movie with outstanding music, clever editing, extreme and exciting action, and desperate characters. On a sanity level, it's obvious the narrative style and plotting are de-evolving into something punk and subversive. One hopes Stielstra's next movie can still be abrasive, yet welcome paying audiences inside (or outside, in case the film is projected on the sides of boxcars) to witness its unique genius.
The Scarlet Worm (2011)
Remarkable Western Surpasses Big Budget Efforts With Talent
A low film budget, especially one attached to a period film as demanding as a western, doesn't have to reflect what can be brought to a movie when gritty acting and a hard-nosed storyline are both unafraid of controversy, or breaking archetypes.
Here, the film-makers make that their saving grace. WORM may lack sweep and grandeur, but it compensates for its meager funding by creating a world of believable, albeit strange, characters, who are caught in writer David Lambert's bleak narrative and poetic dialogue. Both make their mark in a tale of a cynical killer hired by a cattle-baron to sterilize a town of its brothel owner. The killer Print (played excellently here by Aaron Stielstra) can see the brothel-owner (a chilling Dan van Husen) carries an unhealthy amount of Biblical fury about sin, but Print comes to learn the man is far more dangerous for his own philosophies and this soon leads to Print encountering (and unleashing) an enormous bloodbath.
All divided into cinematic chapters and told in a bold and muscular style by director Michael Fredianelli, cinematographer Michael Martinez also create a claustrophobic wilderness out of the luckless town and its inhabitants. Complementing this is the cast, which one doesn't see in a big budget western. More reflective of 60s and 70s westerns, the characters show damage and hard-lifestyle, this further reinforced by the shocking circumstances and violence that erupt in a moments's notice to often punish the innocent. The movie additionally benefits from Aaron Stielstra's somber score, complete with strangled electric guitars, ominous Morricone outbursts of noise, and a memorable finale.
Though thought-provoking, WORM is troubling movie and one without pandering resolutions to its good guy/bad guy scenario. Like equally morally conflicted westerns like Peckinpah's "PAT GARRETT AND BILLY THE KID", "RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND" or the savage "THE HUNTING PARTY", here men are compromised throughout by their own codes of conduct and the brutal instinct to survive. Without the film's superb acting and direction, here both strong enough to make one forget the large scale adventuring to appear in something as banal as "COWBOYS AND ALIENS", the movie might have never surpassed its economic limitations and played out like an exploitation flick. Instead, WORM is a harrowing and unforgettable alternative to shoot-'em-ups or the kind of popular western entertainment that asks no questions of its audience. Prepare to be be impressed.
L'amico di famiglia (2006)
The good ones die young: that's why we have to be bad
L'amico di famiglia / Paolo Sorrentino (2006) A repulsive loan shark, as greedy and unpleasant as one can get, faces the consequences of love. Visually extremely beautiful, with a very cool soundtrack, great performances (Bentivoglio with a Venetian accent???) and a plot that grows minute after minute. I liked this film very much and I was so sad to read the other reviews on IMDb because it's obvious nobody understood it. You can say Sorrentino is Brothers Coen with a heart, to make it very simple: but to read people who still unearth poor old Fellini every time they watch an Italian film it's gut wrenching. Filmed in real location (Latina, Sabaudia and the so-called Agro Pontino were mostly built during Mussolini's dictatorship with the peculiar "fascist" style that make them so unpleasant and cinematic at the same time) and with mostly unknown actors Sorrentino takes his risk in the last part of the movie and doesn't really make it right, but it's a minor flaw that only the "Murder she wrote" fans can be disappointed by. There are some things in common with former Sorrentino's film "Le conseguenze dell'amore": a man who gave up his life (and his dignity) for the sake of money has to come to terms with the unwanted feelings of love (not simply love for a woman but love for a different life, a friend, beauty, freedom, himself). I recommend this film strongly as long as you're an open-minded person and you can get a good translation, if you're not Italian.
Hierarchy (2009)
Hierarchy
Mr. Fredianelli surprised me with this unexpected work, which I liked a lot. There's none of the usual material that made former Fredianelli's works a success among his selected audience (no crazy car chases, no physical violence, no final shootouts
) and this is really brave. Besides, the film is not even a comedy (see: "Bird in a bush) but it is a serious attempt to look inside the lives and hearts of a small group of people. And it achieves most of it. The use of professional or semi professional actors made a big difference, to begin with: I really liked most of them, starting with Mr Spear who plays a troubled young man. They all give realistic performances, and most of the characters were complex too. Mr Fredianelli wears the clothes of a young executive producer who little by little turns from your average John Cusack rom-com dude to a three-dimensional bastard. The different stories are all equally interesting and you find yourself involved in the daily struggle of most of the characters, even the unpleasant ones. I like how the movie starts with a very dramatic note (a visit to a prostitute) and then turns into almost a comedy (the young, good looking writer and her debut in cinema) to leave all the predictable developments (read: romantic subplots) and follow the single persons' stories. Fredianelli tries to make the story (or should I say the stories?) "exemplar" by introducing the character of a hobo whose pathetic figure comes out here and there as a symbolic commentary. At some point our hobo (who, by the way, is not performed by Mr Stielstra) meets with Fredianelli's character: a brilliant idea. The most detestable character of the film is
but I don't want to spoil the film now so let's go to the small list of complaints. I would have done without the graphic sex scenes because they were not really useful: or maybe it's just because I'm an old woman, or maybe both. The catholic priest scene is very funny, well written and performed but, unfortunately, it's not at all realistic: I fear that Catholic Church has more complicated and subtle ways to explicate its power. The stories don't develop at the same pace: at some point we miss our hero for a long time. Technically the film is an incredible improvement on both sound and visuals: and also the musical selection is very accurate and intelligent (those romantic, old fashioned song at the end are just perfect). Too bad for the close ups and some conversation scenes that sometimes aren't as skillful and as "artistic" as one would expect, also considering the good acting. And
"Hierarchy" is a very good title: only I couldn't understand what it's got to do with the film. What I really liked in Mr Fredianelli's film was that, after watching it, I kept thinking about it and going back to certain scenes and dialogs. There's a lot of philosophical material, and I'm a sucker for that stuff as long as it's sincere and not pretentious. And this is another plus for this film: it's not pretentious at all. Just think about all the criticism against creative or supposedly creative people that comes out in the end: that was very brave too, considering that Mr. Fredianelli is a creative person himself. I really hope that Mr Fredianelli will make more films in this direction: more personal but also with an interesting look at some part of society. Bravo Mike!