MEDIA: Film Review –

June 11, 2020 – So many blurred lines, so much personal sound and fury being shot, cut, printed. It’s tempting to view Ferrara’s self-proclaimed “portrait of an artist as a not-so-young man” as a thinly veiled autobiography, his current living situation refashioned as a day-in-the-life character study. Write what you know, and what the director knows in his newly domesticated, debauchery-free life are walks in the park, prayer beads, and waiting for the local market to get fresh pineapple and beans in.

Slowly, however, we start to see cracks forming. Tommaso is experiencing a bit of a creative block. The child has put a strain on the relationship. One day, while sitting at the playground with Deedee, he sees his beloved with a hot young, hippie-ish guy. Or maybe this frustrated man only “thinks” he sees this infidelity happen, as he’s starting to become an unreliable narrator. His fuse keeps getting shorter. Hallucinations, usually involving long shots of naked, nubile woman – family life hasn’t cured Ferrara of this particular cinematic quirk – keep reoccurring. You’re not sure what real or imagined after a while. Tommaso tells his Al-Anon group about trying to do an American version of La Dolce Vita in Miami. Ferrara, however, is putting his spin on a much more internal Fellini movie.

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