My Favorite of 2014

ITALIAN MOVIES HAVE NEVER BEEN BETTER

My favorite of 2014, in no particular …

1) Il Capitale Umano (Human Capital)

A stunningly complex drama about money, families going haywire because of it, and a guy on a bike who, one dark snowy night, loses his life and brings theirs into glaringly sharp focus.

Director: Paolo Virzì
Writers: Stephen Amidon (novel), Paolo Virzì (screenplay)
Stars: Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Matilde Gioli, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Luigi Lo Cascio

2) Anime Nere (Black Souls)

Three brothers from a Calabrian crime family see the future of the family’s heroin/goat herding organization in different ways. The interactions are authentic and the dialogue in Calabrian dialect realistic; mafia movie aficionados will find the criminals in Anime Nere satisfying, those who just love a good family drama will be equally drawn in.

Director: Francesco Munzi
Writers: Gioacchino Criaco (novel), Francesco Munzi (screenplay)
Stars: Marco Leonardi, Peppino Mazzotta, Fabrizio Ferracane, Barbora Bobulova

3) I Nostri Ragazzi (The Dinner, Our Kids)

When two brothers, more for appearance sake than anything else, get together with wives that hate each other for a monthly dinner, it’s not fun for anybody but it’s just something one does. The monotony of the family tradition might have continued forever had it not been for something their kids got involved in, something worse than anyone could have expected. Based on the book, The Dinner, by Herman Koch.

Director: Ivano De Matteo
Writers: Valentina Ferlan (screenplay), Ivano De Matteo (screenplay)
Stars: Alessandro Gassman, Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Luigi Lo Cascio

4) Smetto Quando Voglio (I Can Quit When I Want)
In the first few minutes of Sydney Sibilia’s Smetto Quando Voglio ( I Can Quit When I Want), I thought, “Oh wow, Syd’s ripping off ‘Breaking Bad!’ “; but I was wrong. Smetto Quando Voglio is a hilarious comedy and a story all it’s own. Breaking Bad’s Walter and Smetto Quando voglio’s Pietro are in the same boat; two frustrated college professors who are highly educated and bright but can’t get ahead decide to use their knowledge of chemistry to make money.

Director: Sydney Sibilia
Writers: Valerio Attanasio
Stars: Edoardo Leo, Valeria Solarino, Valerio Aprea

5) Italy In A Day

Very cool documentary about what Italians are doing on one particular day.

Director: Gabriele Salvatores
Writers: Ilaria Castiglioni (supervising writer), Raffaello Fusaro (head writer)
Stars: Alessia Gatti, Nikolas Grasso, Lorenzo Ciani

6) Il Giovane Favoloso

Based upon the short but fruitful life of illness-racked Italian poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi.

Director: Mario Martone
Writers: Mario Martone, Ippolita Di Majo
Stars: Elio Germano, Michele Riondino, Massimo Popolizio

7) La Mafia Uccide Solo D’Estate (The Mafia Only Kills in the Summer)

Even though this is technically a movie from 2013, it came out at the very end of that year and I didn’t see it until 2014, so I’m putting it on this list. Pif’s clever child’s eye view of what it was like for normal people living under the mafia’s thumb in 1980s and 90s Palermo is a uniquely entertaining take on a very serious theme, the mafia’s killing spree that resulted in the deaths of judges, politicians, and police officers and reached fever pitch with the famous “Maxi-Trial.

Director: Pif (as Pierfrancesco Diliberto)
Writers: Michele Astori, Pif
Stars: Cristiana Capotondi, Pif, Alex Bisconti

8) Scusate Se Esisto (Excuse Me For Living) is the movie that (finally) gives Paola Cortellesi the chance to shine like the superstar that she is. La Cortellesi is always adorable, but In Scusate Se Esisto, she just explodes with cuteness, and proves herself a top comic actor. Her Co-star, Raoul Bova, is equally engaging, and when I say “engaging”, I mean HOT (as well as talented and funny).

Director: Riccardo Milani
Stars: Marco Bocci, Raoul Bova, Paola Cortellesi

9) In Senza Nessuna Pietà Pierfrancesco Favino gained fifty pounds and shows every bit of his star potential in director Michele Alhaique’s Senza Nessuna Pietà. Mimmo, played by Favino, is part of a crime family but is happier at his day job as a construction worker. Having been left fatherless at an early age, his uncle raised him and expects his bruiser nephew to provide muscle when debts need to be collected. Mimmo is perfectly capable but clearly unhappy about his lot in life, destined, it seems, to live it out in a clinically depressed state. Greta Scarano is definitely a rising star.

Director: Michele Alhaique
Writers: Michele Alhaique, Andrea Garello
Stars: Pierfrancesco Favino, Greta Scarano, Claudio Gioè

10) Anni Felici, another from 2013 but counted in the 2013-14 season and one that I saw in 2014 is from director Daniele Luchetti and stars Kim Rossi Stuart and Micaela Ramazzotti, this “autobiographical story” is told from Luchetti’s 14 year-old self’s perspective in 1974 and really lets it all hang out, to use ’70s terms, telling about his family. Micaela Ramazzotti’s performance was one of favorites of all time.

Director: Daniele Luchetti
Writer: Daniele Luchetti
Stars: Kim Rossi Stuart, Micaela Ramazzotti, Martina Gedeck