Freaks Out

It reminded me of what happened with Benigni's Pinocchio. Mainetti made us wait almost six years for his "cinecomic". He wants to repeat the call of his previous experiment. He opens with a dazzling incipit. Then almost everything derails. The increase in the means available - which prevented the immediate release in streaming - had to guarantee even more visionary than his last test. Unfortunately, the only revelation worthy of the other undertaking consists in the choice of the protagonist. There was Ilenia Pastorelli, here is the very young Aurora Giovinazzo. So far we are. Then, between a few empty passages and a smashing epilogue (reminiscent of the own goal of the final battle in the dark in the Games of Thrones) one gets more and more the impression of witnessing a long drawn episode of a fantasy TV series. It is recognized the good will to want to be different, at least in intent, from the Italian cinema of recent seasons. At the same time, by raising the bar of ambition, any appeal that could become cult again is inhibited: on this occasion, there is some politically incorrect idea or some Chaplinian tenderness but it is not enough to give freshness to Italian popular cinema. The "coming to age" journey of his gentle misfits - much more successful in Jeeg Robot - this time does not compete in depth with his obvious models (X-men, Guardians of the Galaxy, Suicide Squad). Claudio Santamaria, now elected as the director's alter-ego, is masked in Chewbacca style, despite being the only star of appeal (together, perhaps, with Giorgio Tirabassi). One wonders why Luca Marinelli has not returned as the villain.

What Mainetti was aiming to do was probably a bit too ambitious for the budget of the movie, you can see that mainly in the vfx, however the movie is able to appear realistic, thanks to the folk substrate of the characters and locations. A note of credit goes to Aurora Giovinazzo, who plays Matilde, for her great performance, surely a good discovery for the italian cinema. Indeed a really well made movie for the italian and european scene, which can aspire to be seen overseas.

A really well told fable, a spaghetti superhero movie. Don't expect avengers or ironman like movie, here heroes have fears, hunger and they don't pretend to save the whole world, they are not superheroes, they are freaks! Give this movie a chance and you'll not regret.

The story is steeped in magic realism, well acted and quite touching in several moments.

My favourite character was the hunchback leader of the partisan gang, but everybody deserved praise (Santamaria was excellent as always, all but unrecognizable under a heavy Chewbacca - style makeup).

Franz chews every scene he's in, and even minor characters are well-rounded, from Irina to the wolf-woman to the partisan sniper.

Even the final battle scene is well choreographed, and makes more tactical sense than several big budget battles where the opposing armies simply rush at each other.

Definitely recommended.

Im not going to masquerade as some Hollywood critic reviewing on here like a lot of folks. But...just... wow, by far the most unique & electic story line I've ever seen. Interesting two hours in front of my tv.