Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: ITALIAN STUDIES [Tribeca Film Festival 2021 -Virtual]
The idea of a cityscape for a blank canvas is one that has changed over the years. NYC is its own bohemian approach is not as disparate in its neighborhoods as it used to be. The idea of "Italian Studies" [Narrative Spotlight/World Premiere] is based on a premise of a author who goes out one day and just loses her memory. As a result for most of the film, she wanders around the city as certain things begin to reveal who she is to herself and others. Her base knowledge and ideas (including what made her write her short story book) are almost reflexive elements because it points to a time both before and after so time is not a constant. While this is an interesting storytelling device and a unique exercise for the versatile Vanessa Kirby as the lead, it tends to feel rambling at points. The other talent in the film (save for Maya Hawke) are seemingly more non-professional actors that the director perhaps recruited to give a more raw feel to the proceedings. While this cinema verite style has its merits, and the personalities of these people are strong, it never quite brings a true reckoning, except to place Kirby's character back in her lane. Simon Brickner as a raw nerve/would-be street hustler/singer is gangly but also true to form and emotion and Kirby seems to understand and react to that whether or not his acting is instinctual or not. One gets the sense that the scenes were mostly improvised, either shot on long lenses or with small cameras (even phones). The bookended interviews are interesting but the context and their importance to the path of the story is unclear at times beyond canonizing the thought of youth. Eventually the idea of Kirby's character's path is one of impulse but not necessary one to be re-experienced but to be simply savored (in her words). The downtown streets of NYC pre-pandemic feel lived in but the culture that perhaps existed pre-9/11 seems to be slightly missing but that might be simply generational. C
By Tim Wassberg
