Directed by:
Stefano SollimaCinematography:
Paolo CarneraCast:
Greta Scarano, Pierfrancesco Favino, Jean-Hugues Anglade, Elio Germano, Giulia Gorietti, Claudio Amendola, Alessandro Borghi, Lidia Vitale, Yulia Kolomiets (more)Plots(1)
A gangster known as the "Samurai" wants to turn the waterfront of a small town close to Rome into a new Atlantic City. A corrupt politician fond of young prostitutes and cocaïne is protecting him with the help of a powerful cardinal. All the local mob bosses have agreed to work for this common goal. But peace is not to last long, and a ferocious war between the gangs is about to wreck the Samurai's dream. (official distributor synopsis)
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Reviews (11)
It's safe to say that this gangster film has one of the more conservative audiences, and one can admire Sollima’s fatalistic lyrical approach all the more for portraying a corrupt and crime-ridden environment as an inescapable microcosm where people from all walks of life come together, united by abandonment of moral and ethical values. There are no positive heroes here, in fact almost everyone here is granted a well-deserved punishment, and as such the film accesses the viewer primarily through its mood. To do this, it uses rather atypical techniques, with many scenes lacking spatial exposition, for example. Often a scene is opened with shots of seemingly unrelated activities that gradually build up the space in which the sequence will take place. Which works mainly because those scenes are much longer than usual and, despite that very mood-setting atmosphere, are quite procedural. A perfect example is the supermarket shootout, which is an episode that takes place over four floors of a department store, though its protagonists only meet in one of the shops at the beginning. The extreme long shots occupying the generally familiar interiors of the mall and the civilian victims here straddle that very line between the criminal world and the civilian world. The resulting shape then manages to retain its bankrupt mood despite the revenge finale, because however much evil was punished, it was still just the cog in an ever-turning wheel that, with only minor variations, will continue to function forever.
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This is the powerful experience that I was expecting (in vain) from last year’s Black Mass and Legend. The Italians play the mafia game at a completely different level than the Brits and Americans. One minor evil event leads to an apocalypse that engulfs and destroys everyone. The feeling of helplessness, the inability to avoid being caught in the web of crime, grows into furious madness. Suburra is a crime thriller, so it wouldn’t be celebrated in Cannes like Matteo Garrone’s artsier Gomorra, but it’s a damn engaging crime thriller that shows some great work with characters. Excellently played characters. The story is familiar in places, but never falls into clichés. The soundtrack’s use of M83’s greatest hits is rather bizarre, which perhaps makes it all the more effective. This musical choice made me add a fifth star.
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Weird movie. Nice stylization, amazing soundtrack (the best of the year!), wild sex and interesting narrative style, but there were a few things that bothered me. The running time is excessive, there is no main character, only supporting characters, and unless I have someone to root for, a movie can't keep me glued to my seat. Violence and action were also scarce here. A decent gangster flick. Probably not my cup of tea. 60%.
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This is one of those films I find it hard to evaluate. I wouldn’t even dream of criticizing the film for a lack of quality filmmaking. It was definitely there, the problem was that the first hour was mind-numbingly boring and soporific. I also didn’t learn anything new - gypsies and politicians are the same everywhere and prostitution is a dangerous profession. I just had to write this down: "So if you don't go away now, I'll chop your leg off, put it in the fridge and return it when you bring me the money.” All right then.
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It’s an audio-visually over-stylized, soft-spoken, yet more than eloquent fresco about the dark side of the eternal city that manages a quantum of characters, unprecedented violence, and metaphorical parables. Some of the threads could still use an extra knot at the end, but it is still an intense and exhausting viewing experience in the best sense.
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