June was a more complicated month: many projects to complete, others to start, plus Euro 2020 has started, so I haven't seen as many movies as I would have liked. But I managed to see enough to present you a nice, seasoned top, as usual, with movies, series, documentaries (all put in a big block of "movies seen last month").

What we have here: two excellent series, an Oscar documentary and two Italian ones. Enjoy!

serial, season 3, 6 episodes

One of my favorite shows from the last few years (and probably one of the best made by Netflix) returns with the final season: a season that talks about life, its sufferings, its joys and the things that make it so complex. Sandy, the acting teacher, has all the feelings in the world in a short period of time: she loses her best friend, her career gets a big boost, her daughter is in a promising relationship, her ex-first wife returns close to family. A season that keeps its humor, but which adds much more empathy and sensitivity. It is more likely that now, beyond the skillful and intelligent discussions between friends, you will get closer to the characters, feel like they are yours and stay with them forever. Excellent!

2. My Octopus Teacher 2020

I was curious to see what the documentary that won this year's Oscar is like, and here's what I discovered: Craig Foster dives daily for several hundred days in an area full of vegetation near the shores of South Africa. There he researches the underwater fauna and flora and forges a strange "friendship" with an octopus, which he approaches and studies for a long time. What he discovers also shows us, respectively the extraordinary intelligence of this invertebrate being, which attaches itself to man, defends itself from predators in unprecedented and clever ways, just as it hunts.

It is a very unusual look at an animal of which we still know too little, endowed with a rare and almost human intelligence; only we fail to camouflage ourselves in this way, to build a different “shell” depending on the attackers, nor to understand quickly enough who our friends are and who our enemies are. Sure, there is a sense of directing some moments, but the documentary and the ones presented are worthwhile and informative.

3. Lupine 2021

, miniseries, season 2, 5 episodes

Lupine continues the series of fishtail adventures after season 1 and, this time, changes the register a bit: because his son has been kidnapped, the stylish and intelligent thief no longer performs the actions with surgical precision and everything becomes personal, subjective, submissive so mistakes. Maybe that's why the character is more empathetic now because he makes more mistakes, more tears, realizes the mistakes of the past. So, beyond the impressions caused by the first season, here we live with Lupine and suffer with him and his son, and the overall miniseries increases in value precisely because there is no weak end, maintaining its qualities of being nice, intelligent and full of mystery. In the good style of a quality French policeman, as I said last time, a recommended series.

Paolo Genovese made the excellent Perfetti sconosciuti (if you haven't seen it, look for it), so I couldn't miss another film directed and created by him, this nice "Have you ever been to the moon?". The film keeps the patterns of a (Italian) comedy, we don't have many surprises, but it's still nice and funny, without asking too much of our neurons and without rejecting it; so we will not pause, because here we find interesting characters, humorous lines and a small part of that provincial, authentic Italy, far from tourists, with its bars and restaurants, with curious locals, with traditional food, with animated markets ecc.
In short: a successful Italian influencer comes to the country to claim and then sell a legacy and gradually falls in love with that life he does not feel his own, with the simple, sincere people he meets, on whom he depends and on which he wants to depend. Nice and recommended for a summer evening.

5. Looking for Sophia 2004

In 2004, Sophia Loren turned 70, an opportunity for Italian filmmakers to pay tribute to her through a documentary about her life and career. On the one hand, a few people who have worked with her talk about encounters and achievements (the best known being Omar Sharif and Robert Altman), and on the other hand, we have many images from Sophie's films throughout her career, but also some unpublished interviews he gave to the Italian, American or French press. An extraordinary career and a thrilling life full of things that were not always under her control, such as the famous arrest in the early 1980s, which you see better explained here. An interesting documentary, in less than an hour, about one of the emblematic actresses of Italy and the world (who returned last year with a new film, at the age of 85, "You have your whole life ahead!" After Romain Gary, also on Netflix.

Video Trailers:
Sophia Loren
The Kominsky Method
My Octopus Teacher
Lupine
Have you ever been to the moon
Looking for Sophia