For the
sake of not having to write the same intro a million
different ways throughout the rest of time, just know that
this column avoids the overly long and sometimes dull
process of full film reviews and instead opts to break
things down based on what I thought going in, what happened
while I was there and what I learned at the end of it all.
Thanks for reading!
The
Breakdown - City Island
The Impression:
A big old Italian comedy rife with the sort of painful
stereotypes that every film Hollywood deems as "ethnic"
drowns under.
The Reality:
City Island is a well put together, better-than-usual
bit of Italian familial stereotyping. The sort of film that
you've seen a hundred times over, one with loud brassy
Italian wives, daughters-turned-strippers, and surprisingly
sensitive father figures yearning for a life outside the
norm. What derails the film is the De Felitta's inability
to find focus in tone or mood. At times the film plays like
a quirky family comedy but will quickly dip in to the sort
of bawdy eccentricities of a low-budget independent.
There's even hints of a serious film with serious
undertones, but one that is so under-explained it's almost
not worth mentioning.
I'm not entirely put off by a film depicting Italians that
can't differentiate itself from all that came before it.
What I am put off by is a sloppy script and a director who
flip-flops from one end of the emotional spectrum to the
next.
The Lesson:
There's some book all Italian directors read at a certain
age that dictates the tenants that each and every one of
their films will explore. I will never read this book, and
I am very happy about it.
Noah Sanders is the blog/news editor at Light In The
Attic and a contributor at Sound On The Sound and
the KEXP blog. He also has his own
Criterion-based film site, Criterion Quest.
If you'd like to contact Noah in regards to his
writings here at Side One: Track One then please do
so
here.
- Noah Sanders
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Unless
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John Laird under a
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