SBIFF 2015: "Banana"

Film Review: Banana
(Italy)
2015 Santa Barbara International Festival
World Premiere

"Banana" is a delightful and ultimately poignant comedy from Italy about a chubby and hopelessly romantic boy who went to great lengths to win the affection of a beautiful girl he likes.

The story is about a young boy, who fancies himself as Brazilian and is nicknamed Banana for his poor soccer skills, is teased at school for not only his lack of skill on the field but also in the classroom. Despite his less-than remarkable grades, he offers to tutor a girl he has a crush on. A bit bewildered by the offer, she agrees.

Written and directed by Andrea Jublin, this movie offers ample laughs but it does not just end there. The audience is presented with thoughtful subplots featuring the adults and other kids that surround Banana's world. There's a stern teacher who has decided to torture her student after she had lost hope about the world around here and his mother and father who has long ago ceased communicating sincerely. There's also his sister who is torn between her first love and her new boyfriend who is offering her a new life. He also has a classmate whose entrepreneurial skills have him selling anything and everything - and always funny every time!

There's a certain charm to see an innocent young boy set out to prove to himself that he can achieve anything he imagines if he keeps his sight on it and works on it while all the adults around him have surrendered their lives to a fate they imagined they deserved.

The main character, Banana (his real name is Giovanni) reminds me strongly of the three girls in the swedish film "We Are the Best (a favorite from last year) --- their zest for life and his limitless optimism that there's always something good, something nice for each one of us if we all just believe are truly inspiring.

The wonderful cast include Ascanio Balbo, Anna Bonaiuto and Giorgio Colangeli.

Rating: 4 Stars

XXX
Raymond Lo

Oscars 2015: "Human Capital"

“Human Capital” starts with a beautiful tracking shot of a confetti-strewn ballroom and rests on a waiter as he bus a cart of elegant dessert plates. The camera follows him as he gets on his bike and starts to head home. It’s a dark evening. The audience can feel that something terrible is about to happen and soon enough it does. In one treacherous bend, the bike is hit by an unknown SUV that does not stop and only careens past the accident site. The waiter is left blooded and presumably injured or even dead. This accident is the jumping point of an otherwise interesting film told in an engaging storytelling style that attempts to dissect a simple interaction, a seemingly harmless conversation or an apparent uncompromising act from three different perspectives, offering a different layer of truth depending on what one imagines it to be.

The story is divided into four chapters. The first chapter is about Dino, an ambitious real estate broker who invests his life’s worth into a hedge fund. The second chapter is about Carla, an unappreciated trophy wife who plans to renovate an abandoned theater. The third chapter is about Serena, Dino’s daughter and the girlfriend of Carla’s son. The fourth chapter is when all their lives coalesce in one united narrative again, when an event unifies the truth and their lives are threatened to be disrupted by a nuisance death of an innocent man.

This film from Paolo Virzi is an adaptation from the American novel of the same title by Stephen Amidon. I am not familiar with the source material but if the narrative structure is similar to the movie, I am guessing the book is one of those riveting novels that is hard to put down. The movie is pretty engaging but I can’t say if I would have liked the movie better without reading the book. As it is, the movie feels like an important film flashing with sheer brilliance on the surface but starts to lose its luster on closer look. When you start to revisit the plot, you start to question some of the motivations of the characters and when you do, you discover more flaws that only raises more questions. I did not particularly like the ending when the director decided to go the way of the printed epilogue to explain what happened to most of the characters leading to the explanation of the meaning of the title.

Apparently, 'Human capital' is a legal term to denote a person's projected earnings and is used in calculating insurance claims if their working life is cut short. It is what human life is worth according to the insurance calculators.

The movie would have worked better if it had ended with the lavish party after yet another tragedy and I would have been confronted with a powerful human drama about society's hypocrisy, greed and lust for money. Unfortunately, it decided to go further thus ruining almost everything for me. I wish I could really like the movie more because I loved the impeccable production design. The costumes are just plain gorgeous. And the performances amazing!

“Human Capital” is Italy’s entry to the Oscars.

Rating: 3 ½ Stars