Watched Italy's 2021 The Catholic School (1:45:38)., a true story about a group of spoiled, male, high-school brats who go through insecurities about manhood and end up committing a heinous crime against two young women. Told from the point of view of Edoardo, one of their co-students, this is a coming-of-age movie riddled with scenes of family dysfunctions, bullying, first-time sex, homosexuality, theological questions, and issues of democracy versus socialism. The young men are enrolled at Instituto de San Luigi, the Catholic school referred to in the movie, their lives seeming to reflect the negative impact of their religious training on their moral values.
The sequences are disjointed and at times incoherent. Too many characters are presented to the viewers too soon, making it initially difficult to distinguish one from the others, especially since many of the roles are merely peripheral to the main plot. At times the movie verged on being a teen-age version of Golding's Lord of the Flies, at other times, because of its structure and narrative, Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Not for the faint-hearted because of its violence, though most of the violence is suggested rather than shown, but definitely not a feel-good movie that can cause one to go though a post-screening, two-hour depression.
No comments:
Post a Comment