Set in his native Napoli in the late ’80s, Sorrentino casts (Timothee Chalamet lookalike) Filippo Scotti as his alter ego, Fabietto. Toni Servillo plays his dad. Think “Cinema Paradiso” but sultrier with a dash of Fellini. All the Italian stereotypes are here — the large noisy family, the football watching, the oddball characters, the sexual awakenings. It’s all richly photographed by Daria D’Antonio’s evocative photography — many of the frames in this film have such a rich warmth to them. When tragedy strikes, Fabietto, much like Sorrentino did, finds refuge in cinema. That’s when the film starts to drag. It’s not much of a spoiler to say that he will end up becoming this big shot director and winning an Oscar. Despite the familiarity, the end-result is raw and, on a moment by moment basis, compulsively watchable, but I at times wished Sorrentino refrained from the second half’s autobiographical trappings and relied more on the wonderful eccentricities of the side characters. [B] Contribute Hire me
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