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Posted by
zacharythax April 30, 2009 -
562 views
Gritty, scummy, gangster film from Italy--which looks like a sleazy third world backwater. Everything takes place in a post-nuked-looking decayed concrete block housing where you can almost smell the fermented piss and fear sweat. The pastaland of Frederico Fellini isn't even on the same planet as this place, or maybe it's just been drowned, covered in raw sewage and left to rot in the sun.
This is a grim unromantic and brutal patchwork of several unconnected stories. Every scene is so crowded and the action isn't always in your face or very obvious, so it's a bit difficult to follow, but suffice it to say that this is one downbeat ugly feel-bad flick. in every scene. The old guys (maybe they watched The Sopranos) all are fat and wear track suits and gold chains while the young guys wear sports chav clothes and striped polo shirts (and recite scenes from Scarface(!)
Most of the scenes are shot hand held and with no music. What little music there is consists of bad electronic disco. Also the actors don't look a thing like movie stars. They all have zits and wrinkles aplenty. Some scenes may remind viewers of The Wrestler
You just can feel the sense of no-future and you just know these kids are going to get killed. There's a dressmaker who sells out to some Chinese, a twenty-something learning the fine art of toxic waste disposal from his uncle, and a mysterious guy in a suit who seems to walk away with everything in the end.
Presented by Martin Scorsese and based on a nonfiction account of the Camorra syndicate in Naples.
