Ferie d'agosto (1996) Poster

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7/10
Cute
slzoras11 August 2022
This movie feels like a movie you've seen a thousand time: it's the summer-holiday-family feud-misunderstanding comedies, a genre of movie that is always done but rarely done right in italy. In this case, Virzi manages to craft the perfect sample of this genre, that works enough to be entertaining and is also slightly smarter than the other similar movies. Performances were mostly good (except for most of the child actors), the plot is engaging and easy to follow. The characters are not too original, not for Virzi anyway, but they work. It's a very good combination of satire and comedy and a genuine melancholy at the bottom. The political part might be a little forced at time, but it works because the characters literally force it into the plot. You ultimately hope for these two families to reconcile, it brings you close to everyone's political perspective without harsh judgement, even though it's a left-leaning movie in its "ideology" it doesn't shy away from showing the humanity and inhumanity on both sides. This movie is comfortable, it's an easy watch that still manages to be smart in the end.
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5/10
Left and right
petra_ste26 January 2015
Warning: Spoilers
In the mid-nineties director Virzì crafted a little gem, a bittersweet comedy with some cleverly understated social commentary. Unfortunately, that comedy was Ovosodo and not Ferie d'Agosto - the latter being the weakest work of the sharp Italian director. In fact, "understated" is not an adjective likely to be associated with this movie.

The story, focusing on the petty feud between two families on a summer holiday, is inhabited by broad, obnoxious caricatures: liberals are smug hippies and conservatives crass egotists, yearning for, respectively, less chaotic lives and more freedom, and yada yada yada. Actors comply and play types rather than characters. Even Silvio Orlando, the nasal-voiced teddy bear who is usually great in everything, does not shine.

When the movie tries to steer towards more serious moments its pathos feels unearned, with a jarring effect next to its flat protagonists and facile satire.

5/10
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