What I Didn’t Love in 2014

I’m an American with not so much as an Italian grandma to give me a shred of credibility but that doesn’t seem to stop me from criticizing sometimes…

A few days I heard from a reader regarding a review a wrote a long time ago for Nanni Moretti’s ‘Caro Diario’, and he was clearly annoyed that I hadn’t liked it, accusing me of not understanding the culture.

Fair enough, maybe. But he should remember that I love most of the Italian movies I see more than the actual Italians that I know. I’m your cheerleader, obviously, Italians, but there are some films that I just don’t care for.

Actors like Francesco Mandelli and Fabrizio Biggio are banned from this site after I Soliti Idioti. I’m kidding; I’m sure they couldn’t care any less about what I think of them, considering all the money they made. But I’m not watching their movies anymore, let alone reviewing them.

So this year. it’s not so much that I didn’t like, but rather I was DISAPPOINTED with:

In Ferzan Ozpetek’s Allacciate Le Cinture (Fasten Your Seatbelts) there’s really no need to fasten anything – it’s an old school Italian melodrama that I fell asleep watching. There were too many characters, a confusing disconnected plot, and a manipulative melodrama that was just annoying. Ferzan is better than this.

I called the trailer for Renato De Maria’s ‘La Vita Oscena’ the most misleading I’ve ever seen. Aldo Nove’s true story was very tragic and sad and how it managed to end up so boring and trivial is a mystery to me. I’d give it more thought, but in the end, I just don’t care. Isabella Ferrari deserves credit for her role as the dying mom.