It
is pretty depressing when getting initiated into an organized crime clan is the
highest ambition two meatheads can aspire to. Unfortunately, it is all too
attainable. The only price is whatever might be left of their souls. There will
be money and hedonistic pleasures in the short term, but don’t count on much of
a long run for Mirko and Manolo in the D’Innocenzo Brothers’ Boys Cry (trailer here), which screens during Open Roads: New Italian Cinema 2018.
Even
though they are enrolled in some kind of community college hotel-restaurant management
program, Mirko and Manolo are not very serious about it. Their corner of Rome’s
suburbs does not encourage optimism or long-term planning. They demonstrate why
well enough on their own when they kill a stealthy pedestrian in a hit-and-run.
Initially, they are panicked about potential repercussions, until Manolo’s
wannabe-gangster father realizes this is a good thing.
It
turns out their victim was a snitch wanted by one of the local clans. Manolo’s
father brokers his son’s apprenticeship with the clan, claiming he deliberately
mowed the so-called “grass” down. Suddenly, Mirko is bent out of shape hearing
Manolo taking credit for his negligent homicide. However, his friend quickly brings
him into the fold, recruiting him to assist on what will be their first
official hit.
You
can guess the general trajectory of their grubby lives from there, but it is
especially harrowing to watch Mirko seeming lose all remaining vestiges of human
decency. He will drive away his girlfriend Ambra (who was frankly out of his
league) and his ailing mother. This is a gritty, grimy film, but its takeaway
comes through loud and clear: even when there is substantial monetary
renumeration, crime still doesn’t pay.
It
is a grim milieu, but Matteo Olivetti lights up the screen with his hostile intensity
and barely contained energy. As Mirko, he steals the picture outright from Andrea
Carpenzano’s more snide and reserved Manolo. Olivetti also has the benefit of
playing scenes opposite Milena Mancini, who is quite a supportive co-star,
while still being exquisitely tragic as his mother Alessia. It would be
interesting to see them play mother and son again, but in a completely
different context.
This
is a riveting movie, in a horrifying train-wreck kind of way. Shallow, kneejerk
critics will probably be put off by the misogynistic and homophobic attitudes expressed
by the two gangsters-in-training, but they are thugs. Everything they say and do
is awful, almost by definition. The D’Innocenzos (Damiano & Fabio) water
nothing down. This sure isn’t Bugsy
Malone, but Mirko and Manolo really aren’t a heck of a lot older than that.
Recommended for fans of the new wave of naturalistic gangster films (like Gomorrah and Salvo), Boys Cry screens
Sunday (6/3) and Tuesday (6/5) at the Walter Reade as part of this year’s Open
Roads.