(Reviews of Flaminia; and Rebellious - Mission: Royal Rescue)
FLAMINIA.
British audiences may not be overly familiar with Michela Giraud. But the comedian and presenter made her mark on film in Matteo Pilati and Alessandro Guida's Mascarpone (2021) and its 2024 sequel, Mascarpone: The Rainbow Cake. Known for her plain-speaking approach, Giraud has now made her debut as a writer-director with Flaminia which she claims is `more authentic than true' because it draws on the experience of having an older sister, Cristina, who is on the autism spectrum.
Thirty year-old Flaminia De Angelis (Michela Giraud) lives in a swish part of northern Rome with her plastic surgeon father, Guido Maria (Antonello Fassari), and his exacting second wife, Francesca (Lucrezia Lante della Rovere). She expects her daughter to look immaculate, whether she is working as a researcher at La Sapienza University or hanging with her upper-bracket friends, Vittoria (Catherine Bertoni de Laet), Costanza (Ludovica Bizzaglia), and Diletta (Francesca Valtorta).
As they come from old money, however, they regard Flaminia as an outsider. But Francesca hopes to rectify this situation by marrying her off to Alberto De Rotier (Edoardo Purgatori), the son of an eminent diplomat (Andrea Purgatori) and his judgemental wife, Jacqueline (Nina Soldano). Aware that Alberto has a drug problem and has cheated on her with each of her besties, Flaminia is convinced she can reform him, even though a dinner with his parents at a posh restaurant falls flat when Flaminia's fibs about doing charity work are gleefully exposed by the disapproving Jacqueline.
Worse follows when Guido Maria announces that Ludovica (Rita Abela), his daughter from a previous marriage, is coming to stay with them because she has been thrown out of her care home for setting light to her mattress. As she has Autistic Spectrum Disorder, Ludovica tends to speak her mind and can be highly unpredictable, especially where Francesca's prized Paola Paronetto's ceramic is concerned. Embarrassed by Ludovica's antics in an expensive clothing store, Flaminia dons a disguise to save face. But her ruse is rumbled and she is also mistaken for her half-sister when she takes her for an appointment with Dr Marini (Fabrizio Colica), who knows Ludovica from the centre.
Her mood is not improved when Alberto comes to the house unexpectedly and insists on knowing all about Ludovica. He also discovers that Flaminia once harboured hopes to be a singer named Britney Demon and enjoys teasing her. But it's Ludovica's vocal talents that steal the show at a fundraiser organised by Jacqueline, as she elbows a poor little rich girl off stage to belt out a number that goes viral online.
Unsuccessful in her bid to have Ludovica re-admitted to the home (where she has a nice life with lots of friends), Flaminia agrees to let Ludovica try on her wedding dress, as she might not get another chance. She applies some make-up and tells her sister how pretty she looks before making the occasion even more special by donning a white top hat and some tails to be her groom.
Vittoria, Costanza, and Diletta treat Flaminia to a spa session to start her bachelorette day. However, Ludovica is discomfited by them flaunting their perfect bodies in their swimsuits, while she keeps her towelling robe tightly tied over her own. When they take the bride-to-be to a rooftop restaurant overlooking St Peter's, the trio turn up their noses when Ludovica orders carbonara. However, she gets scared by a flambé flame and has a panic attack that causes her to be hospitalised. Upset that she was not allowed to travel in the ambulance, Flaminia berates her friends for the callously catty remarks overheard in the washroom.
Feeling low, Flaminia chews out the make-up artist preparing her for some photos and drives to the coast. She wades into the sea before ordering a calorie- and carb-laden dish of pasta. Back in the city, she drops in at the gym where old flame Andrea (Matteo Milani) works in order to apologise for letting snobbery get the better of her. They kiss and she realises that she can't go through with the wedding. Ignoring superstitions about seeing his bride in her dress, Alberto comes to give Flaminia a pep talk about doing what's expected of them as children of privilege. But she informs her father that the wedding's off and they drive to the home for Flaminia to apologise to Ludovica for having had her priorities wrong and she's rewarded with a beaming smile.
Although casting strategies have become more inclusive in recent times, Giraud opted to have Rita Abela play the role of the half-sister with ASD and she couldn't have been better. Some will argue that an actress on the spectrum could have been every bit as winning and one suspects this topic might come up at the Q&A following CinemaItaliaUK's screening. But Abela excels from the moment she faces off her family at lunch by polishing off the pasta while they pick politely in the socially accepted manner. Abela judges mood swings to perfection, whether she's trying on trendy fashions in the high-end store or assessing her physique in a flowery swimsuit at the exclusive spa. Each expression of pain, consternation, love, and unadulterated glee is heartfelt and free of the phoniness that has become second nature to those living la dolce vita.
As she had based Ludovica on her own sister, Giraud guided Abela through her scene-stealing performance so that she avoided caricature in achieving an authenticity that makes the emotional drama more poignant and the satire all the sharper. The depiction of the best friends as blue-blooded mean girls and the mother-in-law-to-be as a disdainful snob may not be particularly original. But Giraud is aiming for more than `Crazy Rich Italians' in this inversion of the Beauty and the Beast fable, as she shows how wealth and privilege have emasculated and isolated Alberto, who is even more trapped in class expectation than Flaminia because she's an arricchita.
The tonal shift as Flaminia comes to see things from Ludovica's vantage point isn't always smooth, with the sequence involving the walk into the sea and the reunion with the jilted gym instructor feeling particularly novelettish. But the script co-written by Francesco Marioni, Greta Scicchitano, and Marco Vicari is well constructed, with the insights into status, self-awareness, and sisterhood being witty and acute. Giraud's own performance is admirable, as she often makes the flawed Flaminia the butt of the jokes without inviting unearned pity. Much of her direction is prosaic, but cinematographer Manfredo Archinto, production designer Maurizia Narducci, and costumier Valentina Rossi Mori all contribute to creating a milieu that's simply begging to be shattered like a priceless ceramic.
REBELLIOUS - MISSION: ROYAL RESCUE.
Once upon a time, tellers of children's stories reworked the fairytales of Charles Perrault, Hans Christian Andersen, and the Brothers Grimm. Now, they rip off Disney and those who have put a post-modern spin on the studio's trademark plotlines and tropes. Director Alex Tsitsilin and writers Analisa LaBianco and Jeffry Spencer clearly seek to do something different with the damsel in distress scenario in Rebellious - Mission: Royal Rescue. But recasting established situations and character types is a tricky business, particularly in these woke times. Consequently, in seeking to defy certain stereotypes, the trio often find themselves reinforcing others.
Undaunted by the legend of a magician who abducts princesses from their palaces, Mina (Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld) accepts the marriage proposal of a floppy-haired architect named Ronan (Dan Edwards). The King (David Wills), however, wants her to wed someone who can protect the realm and Rogdai (Matt Giroveanu), Kabir (Anthony Sardinha), and Fa Chan (Brian Kim McCormick) arrive to present their credentials. They have no truck with book learning and dismiss Ronan as a softie who is no match for their fighting skills. But Mina wants nothing to do with any of them and her father agrees to her chosen match.
At the great feast, however, Mina is abducted by a dragon belonging to the wicked Kezabor (Pete Zarustica) and the King promises Mina's hand and the kingdom to the one who rescues her. Macho Rogdai goes charging off in pursuit, while the vain Kabir teases Fa Chan about the fact his Mommy Dearest (Jennifer Sun Bell) has sent him off with a packed lunch. But Ronan dons a suit of armour in order to deliver his beloved and he is joined in his quest by a talking bear named Bjorn (Jon St. John) after he rescues his family from an enormous snake by charming it with a reed flute.
Meanwhile, Mina has awoken in a mysterious palace and wandered into the exotic garden. Here, she is informed by Nahina (Vanessa Johansson) - the old woman that the dragon has turned into - that, unless she pleases Kezabor, she will be turned into a golden statue like the other princesses who refused his advances. However, Nahina has her own agenda, as she has been serving Kezabor in order to discover the whereabouts of the wizard, Finn (Abe Goldfarb).
He once used a love potion on her and she was so furious that she vowed vengeance on anyone in love. As Kezabor told her of Finn's perfidy, she has done his bidding while biding her time. But she has no allegiance to the blue-bearded wizard and is almost amused when Mina splats him with a pineapple at their first meeting (which takes the form of a musical set-piece). Ronan gets to witness the scene when Bjorn introduces him to Finn, who gives him directions to Kezabor's castle, which lies the other side of the Sandy Desert that is guarded by a formidable giant.
Back on the trail, Kabir comes across a palace inhabited by four princesses, each of whom has her own turret. They see him being coiled by the snake and he readily goes inside when of the women beans the reptile with a plant pot. But Rogdai is still on the loose and he attacks Ronan on a cliff edge and takes a fearful tumble (which he survives) after Bjorn feigns injury to force the pacifist Ronan into using his fists. They are joking about the deceit when the come across Fa Chan being chased up a tree by a monstrous rabbit. As he is too scared to go home alone, he tags along with Ronan on his podgy donkey, Donut.
At the palace, meanwhile, Kezador has agreed to put Finn in a cell while Nahina works out what to do with him. However, Mina has found the wizard's turban that makes her invisible and she uses her new power to steal Nahina's ring. This enables her to lift the curse from the statuesque princesses and they escape from a balcony using a rope woven by some mice enchanted by one of the women's song (after they refuse to remove their dresses to tie them together). While they get away, Mina has to fend off Nahina, who wants her ring back.
Coming to the desert, Ronan and his friends are blocked by the giant whose hot breath drives them back. However, Ronan realises that the desert used to be a riverbed and he breaches a vast dam to restore nature and cool the temper of the Sea King (Marc Thompson), who is so grateful that he gives Ronan a magic sword to defeat Kezabor (who happens to be his brother) by chopping off his beard.
The rescue party reaches the palace just as Mina finds Finn in the deep dungeon. She is worried that Ronan lacks the brawn to defeat her kidnapper and allows herself to be duped when Kezabor takes her fiancé's shape. He arrives through a cave behind a waterfall in the rocks beneath the palace and clings on to the blue beard when Kezabor zooms into the sky in a bid to destroy his rival after a skirmish.
On landing back in the dungeon, Ronan chops through the beard after Kezabor orders his minions to attack them. But Nihana puts a sleeping spell on Mina and Finn tells Ronan to return to the kingdom while he scurries off with Kezabor's turban in a bid to confound his nemesis. She eludes him, however, and nearly hypnotises Fa Chan into killing Ronan. But Rogdai sneaks up on the camp and seems to strike a fatal blow before galloping off with the comatose Mina. He tells the King that she will wake on their wedding day and preparations begin.
In the wilderness, Nahina stands over Ronan's body to gloat at her triumph in destroying true love. But he morphs into Finn, who has protected the real Ronan with the invisibility turban and by making this sacrifice, he breaks the hex that had made Nihana so wicked. Relieved at being free, she turns into a tree and Finn does likewise, entangling their branches as he urges Ronan to make haste for the palace.
The King is about to make Rogdai his heir when Fa Chan bursts in to accuse him of infamy. Amidst the chaos, Ronan arrives on Bjorn's back and he pulls his sword on Rogdai while breaking Nahina's ring with his foot. This releases Mina, who leaps off her catafalque to bash Rogdai over the head and embrace her father and Ronan, as he agrees to their nuptials. After Bjorn is reunited with his wife and talking cubs, proceedings end with a party and a dance number that sees Fa Chan flirt with a couple of princesses, who declare him to be cute.
Serviceably animated in the now customary CGI manner, but lacking in any form of visual novelty or spectacle, this is a modest meander down the Princess Bride-cum-Shrek brand of fairytale revisionism. The story rattles along engagingly and credit should be given for the attempt to make Mina and Ronan stronger as a partnership without compromising their individuality. Even the villainy is equal opportunity, as the shape-shifting Nahina (voiced by Scarlett Johansson's sister, Vanessa) is actually more formidable than the sketchily limned Kezabor.
It's been noted elsewhere that her depiction as an old hag is as stereotypical as Fa Chan's Chinese mommy's boy. But it should also be pointed out that there's a #MeToo feel about the way in which Kezabor abuses his power to prey upon vulnerable young women, while the filtre used on Nahina is essentially a fairytale equivalent of rohypnol. But this will all fly over the heads of younger viewers, who will enjoy the talking bear and spotting the more blatant knock-offs from sub-generic classics old and new. Moreover, they will like being trusted to follow a film with plenty of plot points and quirky character traits to take on board without being patronised by the kind of video game chase sequence that has become obligatory in so much tween-targeted animation. A bit more knowing humour might not have gone amiss, however.
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