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Thursday, December 19, 2024

FIREWORKS / STRANIZZA D'AMURI (2023)

Well-reviewed ‘Coming-of-Gay’ story, fictional but apparently inspired (initiated might be a better word) by a real incident of gay bashing (and worse) that took place in 1980 Sicily*, near a town that still feels like it’s 1950.  Giuseppe Fiorello, who’s been acting for decades, makes a directing debut at 52, and it shows, the film going on for two-and-a quarter hours, repeating points two or three times.  No doubt his heart is in the right place, but story beats & visual memories feel borrowed from other films and stock photos, piggybacked on a real event to add gravitas.  The leads are late teen boys; one from a happy family of fireworks specialists; the other from a miserable home where he’s recently returned from reformatory and is living with his mom and her lover, a bullying garage owner.  Labeled as the town ‘faggot’ by locals, he (and a moped he’s delivering) meets-cute by crashing into the kid from that happy fireworks family who's on his moped, and a quick friendship flares into flirtation before Fiorello closes the door on us (literally) from viewing further activities.  Busy with fireworks jobs over the holiday season, intimacy grows when Dad becomes too ill to work.  (Dramatically convenient emphysema/asthma.)  But as word of the teen’s relationship leaks out, guilt, denial, a humbling return to past living quarters, physical blows*, and finally a short-lived reunion.  As political call to action, the film’s about four decades late; as drama it feels about four carbon copies away from the original.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  *There’s a lost subplot/character who might have made this film work, a straight local who tries to sexually abuse the kid.  Later, when toughs come in to beat the kid up, he seems to be seething.  As if thinking, he’s not your faggot; he’s my faggot.  Nothing nearly as dramatically dangerous is touched on here.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Note the film takes place in 1982.

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