Is is hot and humid where you are? Here’s a little wintery fun to cool you off.
A kind of Bad Santa all’Italiana, Una Famiglia Perfetta (A Perfect Family) stars Sergio Castellito, Claudia Gerino, Marco Giallini, and Carolina Crescentini. It’s got decorations and music for that Christmasy feeling, but this is the seedy side of Christmas. When “Papà”, Leone, played by Sergio Castellitto, tells the youngest son that he is fat, hates his glasses, and he says he doesn’t understand why he has to spend Christmas with a son who is so fat and ugly, I was horrified/mesmerized and you will be too.
In Ogni Maledetto Natale (Every Damned Christmas) it’s love at first sight for Massimo and Giulia and they make a cute couple, but they have baggage. We all do.Maybe they should have waited a couple more weeks to open it and maybe they shouldn’t have done it on Christmas, is all I’m saying.
Massimo knew better; he told Giulia that Christmas was the “scariest time of year” and that he wanted to spend it alone, but Giulia’s cute pouty face eventually won him over, so off he went to the mountains to meet the Colardo family. It’s got a huge, fun cast including Marco Giallini, Valerio Mastandrea, Laura Morante, and Stefano Fresi.
Il Peggior Natale Della Mia Vita (The Worst Christmas Of My Life) is frosty slapstick fun with Fabio De Luigi and Cristiana Capotondi having their first baby over the Christmas holiday.
Natale A New York (Christmas in New York) is “so bad it’s good” Cinepanettone at it’s finest, starring Christian De Sica, Sabrina Ferilli, Claudio Bisio, and Elisabetta Canalis (Clooney’s ex)
And in our favorite, La Banda Dei Babbi Natale (The Santa Claus Gang) three friends that play in a Bocce league together have three different relationship problems and one of them puts them in the position to be mistaken for three other guys who are burglarizing homes wearing Santa Claus suits. The three innocent guys are played by the comedy trio of Aldo, Giovanni and Giocomo and there are no surprises here – they are the same Aldo, Giovanni and Giocomo that we’ve loved in all of their movies. They end up in a police station on Christmas eve with Angela Finocchiaro, who plays the police inspector, and have to explain to her the events that have brought them there and why they are innocent.
I Love Italian Everything 