[FILM REVIEW] Suburra (2015) by Stefano Sollima
A corrupt Italian politicians takes a hit from the crack pipe and indulges in a threesome with an underage prostitute who dies of a drug overdose while he stands naked, pissing from the balcony of a hotel. Will this be as brilliant as the adaptations (film and TV) of Saviano's novel "Gomorra", or is it just an attempt to ride on the wave of their success?
The film is marked by doom. It literally feels like Rome's last days when the two rival Mafia families (and the Vatican) are drawn into a tangle of brutality that escalates with each new sociopath being introduced. The title Suburra derives from the name of the red light district of ancient Rome.
The Italian Godfather-character called "Samurai" is planning to turn one of the capital's harbor areas into a European Las Vegas. In his way stands "Numero 8", a younger and crazier gangster with torn jeans and a T-shirt tucked into the pants.
By all means, it's often authentic, dirty and violent. Especially in the adrenaline fueled firefight in a mall. But it's rarely original and too often over-dramatized to hide the flaws of the script. "Suburra", based on the novel with the same name, is set in 2011 just days before Berlusconi's resignation, which gives the film a seeming depth that unfortunately becomes shallower and shallower as generic thugs murder and threaten in ways we've seen a hundred times before and much better in other films.
Stefano Sollima, who already effectively made a TV series of Saviano's "Gomorra", aims to guide us through the entangled world of villains where politics, religion and organized crime merge, something that the film Gomorra succeeded with exceptionally well. "Suburra" unfortunately lacks the emotional depth, empathy and characterization that made "Gomorra" so great. The dialogues and characters bring to mind soap opera, the clichés come thick and fast, the numerous and disconnected intrigues relentlessly follow one another and the violence is over the top gory. Neither subtle nor intelligent.
