Gomorrah

Reviewer: Jeffrey M. Anderson
Rating (out of 5): ****

Here's an epic Italian gangster film that seems unconcerned with paying homage to Coppola, Scorsese, Leone or Tarantino. Rather, it's more interested in looking forward and generating thoughtful rhythms and spaces. Based on a best-selling book by journalist Roberto Saviano, whose diggings into this gangster world has forced him to live in hiding under police protection, Gomorrah opens on a vivid scene of shocking violence in a blue-splashed tanning salon, just as a taste.

After that, it centers on a handful of characters in Naples, ranging from green youngsters to burned-out middle-aged fellows. A grocery delivery boy, tired of waiting for the local gang to notice him, decides to join the rival gang instead. Two teenagers -- who are all too familiar with the movie Scarface (1983) -- are also eager for a more glamorous life, and steal a stash of guns as a ticket to thrillsville. (A scene of them in their underwear firing the powerful weapons is the movie's most indelible image.) A man working in the shady garment industry lends his skills to some Chinese rivals, bringing unforeseen trouble upon himself. An assistant in the waste-disposal industry sees more than he ever bargained for. And a bag man who delivers payouts grows tired of demands for more.

Director Matteo Garrone (The Embalmer) finds a stone-faced, almost neo-realist pace for all this, casually flipping back and forth between each storyline, making brilliant use of a seemingly endless array of run-down and abandoned concrete buildings and spaces (with all their jagged shadows). Garrone and his team of writers never over-explain or drop too much information, creating instead a world that outsiders can never totally understand. It's matter-of-fact, so that these guys can go about their business without morals or conscience bothering them. It's so matter-of-fact that it requires strict attention to follow all the storylines, though by the finale, sharp-minded viewers should be able to guess the endings to some of the tales.

The two-disc DVD set from the Criterion Collection comes with a good, hour-long making-of documentary, as well as a 22-minute interview with the director, a 13-minute interview with actor Toni Servillo (Franco in the film), and a long interview with original author Roberto Saviano. There's a short feature with several of the actors, 13 minutes of deleted scenes, and a trailer. The great film critic Chuck Stephens provides the liner notes (and also wrote a long essay for Criterion).