{"id":17538,"date":"2021-12-14T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=17538"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:13:22","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:13:22","slug":"review-the-hand-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/review-the-hand-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: The Hand of God<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Most of Paulo Sorrentino\u2019s previous works center on larger-than-life personalities: Italy\u2019s most powerful politicians in 2008\u2019s Il Divo<\/em> and 2018\u2019s Loro<\/em>, a big-time writer in The Great Beauty <\/em>(2013), and the Holy Father himself in TV\u2019s The Young Pope <\/em>and The New Pope<\/em>. While his latest Italian-language film, The Hand of God<\/em>, gives audiences glimpses of soccer star Diego Maradona, the drama has a much less famous focus: teenaged Fabietto Schisa (Filippo Scotti). Learning that Fabietto is based on Sorrentino himself (one of Italy\u2019s greatest living directors) does add a bit of grandness to the coming-of-age movie, but The Hand of God<\/em> remains a more intimate, scaled-down picture than most of the filmmaker\u2019s oeuvre \u2014 while simultaneously elevating it to one of his best. However, Sorrentino\u2019s grandiose visual style remains intact, creating a vivid depiction of life as a boy in 1980s Naples, with none of the gauzy haze sometimes associated with nostalgic movies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes The Hand of God<\/em> such a triumph for the already-decorated director is the specificity of both its visuals and its characters. Cinematographer Daria D’Antonio delivers arresting image after arresting image, from a chandelier collapsed on the floor to a boatful of bathing-suit-clad family members staring at the single brazenly nude sunbather among them. It\u2019s all simply gorgeous, and not just because of the Mediterranean setting. Sorrentino doesn\u2019t shy away from showing Naples\u2019 less-picturesque corners, but it\u2019s still shot with such a lucid eye that it\u2019s impossible to look away. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The characters get a similar treatment. Sorrentino\u2019s script depicts a sprawling family, orbiting around his on-screen counterpart in young Fabietto, as well as his father (Sorrentino regular Toni Servillo), his mother (Teresa Saponangelo), and his older brother Marchino (Marlon Joubert). Each person feels real and flawed; there\u2019s a streak of cruelty in how the extended family treats each other and the unlucky interlopers, but there\u2019s also real affection for these people. Give me a whole movie about Signora Gentile (Dora Romano), the imperious matriarch of Fabietto\u2019s extended family, clad in an unseasonably huge fur coat who bites into a ball of burrata like an apple under the summer sun. (Also, please give me the burrata.) Even those who don\u2019t play into the larger narrative feel like they have a whole life before their appearance in The Hand of God<\/em> and after; they don\u2019t just exist for their brief time on screen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fabietto\u2019s experiences give an episodic quality to the film, especially in its first two acts. Some portions work better than others, but it all contributes to a remarkably detailed picture of adolescence at a specific time and place. Sex and cinema loom large in Fabietto\u2019s life, even if he hasn\u2019t yet experienced much of either. The promise of the former is as omnipresent as it often is in teenage life, here through exposed breasts, unrequited crushes, and unexpected offers. However, the lush, distinctly Italianness of it all adds even more sensuality than is already present with Fabietto\u2019s voluptuous aunt Patrizia (a beautiful, bruised Luisa Ranieri). Meanwhile, Fabietto says he hasn\u2019t seen too many movies himself \u2014 other than repeat viewings of a battered VHS copy of Once Upon a Time in America<\/em> \u2014 but Fellini and Bertolucci hover just off screen, and Naples\u2019 own Antonio Capuano (Ciro Capano) offers advice to the teen when he says he wants to make movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More emotionally resonant than many of Sorrentino\u2019s other films, The Hand of God<\/em> is distinctly personal in the stories it tells. Even in its particularity, it still feels more universal than his work about the cultural giants known to millions.With The Hand of God<\/em>, Sorrentino truly proves himself a masterful filmmaker as he hits that sweet spot, expressing a tenderness for this time and these characters without ever dipping into sentimentality.  \"\"\/<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The Hand of God” is on Netflix<\/a> Wednesday. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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