Mafia offshoots, teen variety, in Claudio Giovannesi's Italian melodrama, PIRANHAS

We get so few Italian movies opening theatrically here in the USA of late that TrustMovies tends to be thankful for just about any new movie from Italy that comes our way. (He greatly misses being in New York City for the yearly Open Roads series of new Italian cinema that turns up each June.)

Consequently, he was pleased to hear about and then view PIRANHAS (Italian title La paranza dei bambini, which translates, I believe, to something like a netful of children), a film directed by Claudio Giovannesi from the novel by Gomorrah scribe, Roberto Saviano, with a screenplay co-written by Saviano, Giovannesi and Maurizio Braucci.

As with Gomorrah, the new Piranhas deals with the mafia/cammora as so integral and longstanding a part of Italian society as to be practically inseparable from what we might call "life itself." Taking place in the streets, clubs and homes of Naples, Italy (some of those homes are impressive indeed), the film begins as a gang of Naples teenagers steals a huge Christmas tree from a public place, while warding off an attack by a rival gang.

Giovannesi, pictured at right, has staged this, along with a number of other "action" scenes quite well, initially pulling us in via a single character then expanding to more and more, until his movie opens up in surprising, often impressive, ways.

If Piranhas tells us little that is new, as this small gang of willful, mischief-making but rather sweet boys (above) turns into a batch of profiteering murderers, it tells its tale in smart, swift, gorgeously photographed scenes (by Daniele Cipri, who directed and shot It Was the Son and handled cinematography on several of the recent films of Marco Bellocchio).

Piranhas also thrusts into prominence a young man appropriately named Francesco de Napoli (above, right, and below, left) who, at 15 years of age, gives a star-making debut performance in the leading role of Nicola, the boy who leads this gang of newbies. Signore Di Napoli, has a face that the camera eats right up and then asks for more. He's beautiful (he may remind you in certain scene of the young Alain Delon), but he's also full of energy and specificity in terms of his performance. He's not content to simply look good (though at all times he certainly does).

As Nicola turns from a somewhat tender, intelligent, hopeful young man (who wants to protect his mom and her dry cleaning establishment from camorra predators) into a killer, Di Napoli charts the course with plenty of energy and character-defining detail. His attraction to and maybe love for the young girl (Viviana Aprea, below) from a neighboring community is handled with the kind of youthful bravado and carelessness rife among youth in just about all western cultures.

The film also offers yet another object lesson in the danger to society of kids with guns, as consequences -- intended and unintended -- come to pass with a finality that these youthful idiots simply cannot or will not appreciate. Though the end results here will clearly go against our protagonists eventually -- as newer, smarter, younger folk come into power --  filmmaker Giovanese (who also gave us the sweet and unusual prison love story, Fiore) spares us the sadness, pain and bloodshed by simply ending on the road to an oncoming act of vengeance.

If this seems too easy, it is also somehow appropriate. Younger audiences can revel in the immediate thrill, while us older folk shake our heads and murmur, "Sure, kids: just wait...."

From Music Box Films, in Italian with English subtitles and running 112 minutes, Piranhas opens in New York City this Friday, August 2, at Film at Lincoln Center, and then expands to another 17 cities -- including Los Angeles at the Landmark NuArt on August 9 -- over the coming weeks. To see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters, click here and then scroll down to click on Theatrical Engagements.

The Italian Mafia sans any glamorization in Francesco Munzi's fine film, BLACK SOULS

"What a disgusting crew." That was my first note taken as I watched the new Mafia movie, BLACK SOULS, from director/co-writer Francesco Munzi. But why not? This is, after all, a Mafia movie made by Italians -- and not in the mainstream, oh-how-cute! mode of the recent and sort-of black-comic failure, The Mafia Kills Only in Summer. No. This film is about as grim and real as you could ask for. Except, of course, you probably won't. Because Americans demand their Mafia movies and TV shows be entertaining above all, and, yes, glamorous and fun. And don't tell me that The Godfather and, more recently, The Sopranos were not every bit of that, despite James Gandolfini's and the rest of the cast's remarkable performances in the latter. American Mafia movies somehow make "heroes" of their boys; Italians know them for the worthless pieces of walking/barely-talking shit that they are.

Since Gomorrah, there has not been a Mafia movie I've seen to equal the dark and pitiful lives on view in Black Souls. Filmmaker Munzi, shown at left, understands how the lives touched by these people are made infinitely worse by that fingering. This includes the families -- immediate and extended -- of the clan, as well as those who serve and service them. The picture painted here is dank and dismal but Munzi sure knows how to make it an interesting one, full of incident and development -- even as those incidents move from worse to worst.

Munzi is also a rigorous filmmaker in his insistence that we understand how things get done, Mafia style. Consequently we get a good dose of custom and tradition, including song and dance, along with the meetings, match-makings, killings and betrayals. The area (shown above and below) in which much of the film was shot may remind you of Le Quattro Volte (oh, those goats!), and there is even a scene in which a character combines ashes in water and drinks the glass up.

As awful as life is here, the reins of power keep changing, moving, so that neither we nor the characters can ever be quite certain if that power remains intact. What we come to understand, more fully than is usual in films of this genre, is how even those family members on the periphery are still, finally and totally, sucked into to the muck. There is no escape.

Community -- for this, antisocial as it may be, is exactly what we have here -- has rarely taken on such darkness. And interestingly enough, not even the women can bond in this hell. Instead, we see how, from generation to generation, this ugliness is simply passed onward.

"Did you give a shit about any of these people?" my spouse asked as the end credits rolled. Sure, I hated them -- not equally, but to some degree all of them -- the planners, the killers and the enablers. But I also understood them, and this is the key to Black Souls' great success. It allows you to comprehend so much about these people who have utterly broken the social contract and sold out their humanity in the process.

They may be scum, but we come to understand every last character: who they are and why they do what they do -- from shooting up the facade of a local store to murder, dog- and calf-killing and betrayal of one's best friend. Munzi's creation is no small achievement, and Black Souls is one hell of a fine film -- without a trace of glamorization to be found.

In the cast are some bigger names (Marco Leonardi, above, and Barbora Bobulova, at left, three photos above), and others you'll swear were picked off the dirt path of some mountain village. No matter, they all work together to form an utterly authentic ensemble.

The movie -- via Vitagraph Films and running a just-right 103 minutes -- opens this Friday, April 10, in New York City at the Angelika Film Center and City Cinemas 123; in Los Angeles, look for it April 24 at the Landmark NuArt. In the weeks to come, it will open in another 17 cities across the country. You can see all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed, by clicking here.

Smart, old-fashioned movie-making grit: Jonathan Hensleigh's KILL THE IRISHMAN

What a retrograde pleasure it is to see a film like KILL THE IRISHMAN. Jonathan Henleigh's period piece not only takes place in the Ohio of the 1970s but looks like it was filmed thirty-five years ago, too. And while the tag line on the poster tells us, "Based on the true story of Danny Greene, the man the mob couldn't kill," this is not technically (or for that matter literally, symbolically, metaphorically) true. Unless you add the phrase, "For awhile." But TrustMovies is quibbling again. Along with co-writer Jeremy Walters, from the book by Rick Porrello (who was also an executive producer of the movie), Mr. Hensleigh has written and directed an old-fashioned, gritty, event-filled film that speeds along like the proverbial runaway train.

Beginning in the middle of things, we get our first big "event," after which we flashback to Danny's childhood then speed onwards until we reach said event again -- and proceed from there. This proves smart organization because, once we're hurled into things, we hardly have time to catch our breath. Mr. Hensleigh, shown at left, knows how to create small, sharp scenes that include enough information to keep us current and just ahead of the game. And he's cast his movie with a simply splendid set of some of our best char-acter actors, particularly those we love to watch pulling nasty shenanigans.

Christopher Walken (above) is in fine form as the mafia-connected restaurant owner who initially helps our hero, while the priceless Vincent D'Onofrio (below, left) shows a sweet side not seen perhaps since Adventures in Babysitting as Danny's one true Italian mobster friend.

Smaller supporting roles are perfectly handled by stalwarts like Paul Sorvino, Tony LoBianco and Steve Schirripa. These guys, of course, could do Italian mobsters in their sleep. But they don't. Instead they tackle every moment with lip-smacking ferocity that's bracing to see (and hear).

On the Irish side (for this is an Irish vs Italian scenario) are fun-to-watch folk like Vinnie Jones and Fionnula Flanagan. In fact, the only drawback in this enormous and talented cast, Val Kilmer (above), seems to be having trouble staying awake. Granted his role is the least of things; as written and carried out, it appears to provide only a thankless narration/thread for the story.

Saving the best for the last, our star is a fellow whose career seems quite on the rise: Ray Stevenson, above, who made such a fine impression as one of the stars of the HBO series Rome, then later made a terrific avenger in the second (and under-rated) of the still-trying Punisher movies. (Interestingly enough, Mr. Hensleigh wrote and directed the first of these.) Stevenson makes a fine figure of a man as Danny Greene. Alert, strong and decent (when decency is called for), he'll put you in mind of that benign dictator we all desire now and again. His hair alone (is this the first time we've seen him without a barely-there crew-cut?) is worth watching, and everything else about this guy is good, too.

How true all this is to the "facts" of the matter, I don't know. Probably no more so than most movies "based-on-real-events." Yet so real looking and seeming are the places and people on view, that I'd say -- movie-wise -- Hensleigh and his fine cast have all but wrapped up 1970s Ohio for posterity.

You can catch Kill the Irishman, from Anchor Bay Films, starting Friday, March 11, in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, and also in both Los Angeles and Cleveland.  Additional cities will be added the following week. Click here (and then click on SHOWTIMES at top) to learn all cities, dates and theaters.