Reviews

Mio Fratello Ãˆ Figlio Unico|My Brother Is an Only Child

BrotherlyÂ amore

By BRETT MICHEL | April 23, 2008

3.0 Stars

Elio Germano and Riccardo Scamarcio

â€œA Fascist in the family is always handy.â€ Unless itâ€™s a family of leftists in a small Italian town during the turbulent â€œanni di piomboâ€ (â€œyears of leadâ€). Beginning in 1962 as young anti-hero Accio (first played by the scrappy Vittorio Emanuele Propizio and later by the talented Elio Germano) is thrown out of seminary and ending in 1978, Daniele Luchettiâ€™s spirited adaptation (written with La meglio gioventÃº|The Best of Youth scribes Sandro Petraglia and Stefano Rulli) of Antonio Pennacchiâ€™s novel Il fasciocomunista pits the impetuous youthâ€™s political awakening against the Communist convictions of his charismatic older brother Manrico (GioventÃºâ€™s Riccardo Scamarcio) as they fall for the same girl (Diane Fleri). Compared in the press notes to period classics like Bertolucciâ€™s Prima della rivoluzione|Before the Revolution and Bellocchioâ€™s I pugni in tasca|Fists in the Pocket, it also echoes Shane Meadowsâ€™s 2006â€™s This Is England, but political doctrines pale next to sibling bonds, at least for Accio, whoâ€™s blind to the hazards ahead. Italian | 108 minutes | Kendall Square + West Newton

Related: Review: Fired Up!, Cross country trek, Review: Friday the 13th (2009), More

Topics: Reviews , Elio Germano, Shane Meadows

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY BRETT MICHEL

WOMEN WITH SWORDS: KING HU AND THE ART OF WUXIA | March 12, 2013
Decades before women took center stage in the one-two punch of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill , King Hu (1932-1997; the subject of a retrospective at the HFA) put swords in the hands of a soaring heroine in Come Drink with Me.

REVIEW: EMPEROR | March 12, 2013
Yes, Tommy Lee Jones plays the "supreme commander" of the US forces in this historical drama from Peter Webber ( Girl with a Pearl Earring ) that takes place after the Japanese surrender in World War II, and the Oscar winner puts in another towering performance.

REVIEW: 21 AND OVER | March 05, 2013
As one of the Asian stereotypes in this hit-or-(mostly)-miss comedy from writer/directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore says, "Fuck kids these days. Every one of you is drunk, stupid, and fat."

REVIEW: THE LAST EXORCISM PART II | March 06, 2013
Now that the shaky-cam nonsense has been left behind, what remains are textureless, overlit, sub-TV-quality visuals that only accentuate the fact that our protagonist, Nell Sweetzer (Ashley Bell), is at least a decade older than the 17-year-old exorcised sect-escapee that she's playing.

REVIEW: JACK THE GIANT SLAYER | March 06, 2013
Stop me if you've heard this one before: a farm boy dreams of adventure, finds it, and falls in love with a princess along the way. (For everyone's sake, let's just hope she's not his sister.)