News

It’s been a while since Italian cinema has raised a major enfant terrible, but the country’s film industry firmly believes it has a pair in twin brothers Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo. Hot off a co-writing credit on Matteo Garrone’s “Dogman,” the duo (billed onscreen as The D’Innocenzo Brothers) made a splash and won a prize at last year’s Berlinale with their sophomore feature, the sleek, bleak, nihilistic suburban nightmare “Bad Tales.” Its themes were pretty well-worn, but its darkly chic styling was arresting enough to ensure plenty of chatter trailing their swiftly delivered third film “America Latina.”

Sadly, the hype is unfulfilled by this minor, tricked-out study of extreme midlife crisis, which shows little advancement in the brothers’ storytelling instincts, while underlining their knack for surly mood-building and elegantly sinister imagery. If anything, its thin, oblique blend of arch character study, dreamlike psychodrama and spindly...

Italian brothers Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo make movies about men in isolation, those living on the fringes of society. In a way, their latest feature “America Latina” holds much in common with their 2020 film “Bad Tales,” a Silver Bear winner for Best Screenplay; both stories about living in the suburbs and the horror that can come from separating from society. However, it’s hard for “America Latina” to really feel like a horror film with a plot riddled with clichéd and ill-defined characters. Add in a title that doesn’t make much sense and you have a feature that’s strictly watchable in the moment alone.

Massimo Sisti (Elio Germano) is a high-powered dentist who lives in a massive and architecturally unique house in the small Roman suburb of Latina. He appears to spend his days doing little more than working and spending time with his beautiful wife and two equally beautiful daughters.

Italian twins Damiano and Fabio D’Innocenzo, who made a splash in Berlin last year with “Bad Tales,” in which Elio Germano played the sadistic father in a dysfunctional suburban family, are now in the Venice competition with “America Latina,” in which Germano plays a more tender character.

He’s a morally upright dentist named Massimo Sisti who lives with his wife and beloved daughters in a tranquil, albeit a bit eerie, suburban home. Massimo’s life seems peaceful until one night he goes down to the cellar and something unforeseen takes over.

Ahead of the film’s Venice premiere the directors spoke to Variety about why “it was important to make a warmer, more compassionate film” than “Bad Tales” while continuing to explore the dark side of the human psyche. Edited excerpts.

How did the project originate?

Fabio: We were in Berlin with “Bad Tales” and to ease the pressure...