| Gomorrah |
| Written by Mob | |
I’d heard numerous glowing reviews about this film, all of which praised the gritty realism and immersive journey into a world of crime and violence that few are aware of, so when this turned up as an Instant Watch title on Netfux, I figured I had to give it a day in court. The film is an ensemble piece that follows the lives of 5 different people as they all make their way through the dangerous terrain of modern day Naples, which is controlled by the Camorra, a syndicate of criminal gangs that rule the area. The film opens with a group of gangsters relaxing in a tanning salon, only to have another group turn up and start blasting away on them while they are lying around unawares, giving you a taste of the casual and unexpected violence prevalent in the area. The story is based around an actual feud that developed in 2004 and 2005, when a group of secessionists broke away from the powerful ruling clan. This is evidenced in the story of Toto (Abruzzese), a 13 yr old who delivers groceries for his mother in the slum like neighborhood that they live in. He’s good friends with a boy named Simone, who decides to join a secessionist gang while Toto is ingratiating himself with the local thugs by returning some drugs and a gun that he sees one of them ditch while running from the cops. We meet Don Ciro (Imparato), a low level middleman who is responsible for distributing money to the families of incarcerated/deceased members of the Camorra. He finds himself under pressure by two criminals with a grudge against his clan, which will force him to do whatever he can to save his own skin, his allegiances notwithstanding. Marco (Macor) and Ciro (Petrone) are introduced in their natural element: shooting off guns and acting like wanna-be gangster assholes, quoting Scarface and horsing around in an abandoned building. Seeking to make a reputation for themselves, they steal more drugs than they pay for from a drug dealer, making a ridiculous-looking escape on a small scooter in the wake of the crime. More asinine hijinx ensue and they finally run afoul of the Camorra when they steal a small cache of guns and spend time down at the river shooting them off and blowing things up. Why no one simply kills these two idiots after their first little caper is beyond me, as the local criminals don’t have any issue with killing women to make a statement; why are these two jackasses golden somehow? Our final two characters are Pasquale (Cantalupo), a tailor who takes a dangerous but lucrative job training Chinese workers who work in competition with the Camorra-controlled shops in the area, and Roberto (Paternoster), an educated young man who has taken a job working in the proverbial ‘waste management’ industry, helping his boss Franco (Servillo) dispose of toxic waste in various abandoned quarries in the surrounding countryside. Franco’s business practices begin to wear on Roberto as he sees the man ignore the fact that one of his drivers has been splashed with toxic waste; he even brings in children to drive the trucks when the truckers refuse to work for him anymore. Pasquale on the other hand develops a certain amount of camaraderie with the Chinese men who’ve hired him, but finds himself in dire straights when the Camorra lowers the boom on the competition. I’ve oversimplified the plotting dramatically here, but the film deftly intertwines the four storylines to paint a larger image of the sheer hopelessness of life in the area to great effect. The landscape seems comprised of almost nothing but depressing, crowded apartment blocks where violence can break out at any moment, and the only form of commerce is the drug trade. The only thing I found all that hard to believe about the film was how long it takes anyone to target Marco and Ciro for retaliation, as their goofy jackassery is irritating from the moment we first see them, so I’m shocked that it takes as long as it does for anyone to get fed up with their shenanigans. The film looks great, possessing an almost documentary-like feel at times, which brings you closer to the action in my opinion, reminiscent of Children Of Men in that respect, pulling you into unpleasant areas that feel claustrophobically uncomfortable. I’ve not read the expose upon which this is based, written by Roberto Saviano, but all indications tell me that this film captures the feel of the book, if not the level of detail that it portrays in its accounts of the day to day operations of the criminal organization around Naples. I found the film a little slow in parts, but I think that fits in with the reality of the world it portrays, as the daily realities might be somewhat dull, but could be unexpectedly punctuated with violence in the blink of an eye. This is definitely worth a look, I’d definitely recommend checking it out, and if you’ve got Netflix, this one is a no-brainer. 8/10 |
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