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Tommaso
Italy / UK / USA / Greece 2019
produced by Simone Gattoni, Michael Weber, Joshua Blum (executive), Michel Merkt (executive) for Simila(r), Faliro House Productions, Vivo Film, Washington Square Films
directed by Abel Ferrara
starring Willem Dafoe, Cristina Chiriac, Anna Ferrara, Stella Mastrantonio, Lorenzo Piazzoni, Alessandro Prato
written by Abel Ferrara, music by Joe Delia, cinematography by Peter Zeitlinger
review by Mike Haberfelner
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It seems that everything in life is working out great for Tommaso
(Willem Dafoe), an American director residing in Rome, he has a beautiful
young wife, Nikki (Christina Chiriac), and the two have a daughter, Deedee
(Anna Ferrara), whom Tommaso loves very much and tries to be a model daddy
to. Sure, he has had a wild past, but has long joined the Alcoholics
Anonymous, and seems to be doing very well, just now celebrating 6 years
of sobriety. He's also doing yoga and a dance class, and he really seems
to be enjoying his present life - but yet ... Well, ever since they had
Deedee, Tommaso feels rejected by Nikki, and whenever he makes an attempt
to bring up the topic, she evades him - which he takes very personally,
not seeing that she might be stressed out from taking care of their
daughter. Soon he also starts to fantasize of her having an affair,
something he doesn't have the least bit of evidence for, but that doesn't
keep his brain monkeys from putting thoughts into his head. And
eventually, he starts hitting on women from his dance group, at times
successfully even. But the real problem is, with all these thoughts in his
head, he's less and less likely to control his rage - until things boil
over in a not very good way ... The best way to describe this
film is probably "this is what it looks like when Abel Ferrara is
making a home movie with friends and neighbours." But of course, one
of these real life neighbours just happens to be Willem Dafoe, one of the
most interesting actors of his day and age, and the film just happens to
be shot by Peter Zeitlinger, a long time Werner Herzog collaborator. But
the movie was shot in Ferrara's actual apartment, with his actual daughter
playing sort-of herself and participants of Ferrara's AA and yoga group in
supporting roles ... and that said, the outcome is a pretty wonderful
film, home movie or not, as as usual, Ferrara doesn't shy away from
digging into difficult subjects and revealing things about himself not
commonly known (though we'll of course never find out to what degree the
film is actually autobiographic), and it looks simply wonderful, with the
beautiful city of Rome captured in truly breathtaking images. That said,
this is a film that's tough to swallow at times as it touches upon some
hard subjects one might see oneself mirrored in, but it's definitely worth
the watch!
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