Suburra

Phenomenal visual stylization, atmospheric soundtrack, or M83 as we like him best, and a precise portrayal of the underworld. All this in a gritty, uncompromising and strongly un-American delivery by the Italians, who know the mafia like few others. An interesting affair that is so pompous and self-aware that you can't take your eyes/ears off it. One of the films of the year, though it lacks an even sharper finale. (06/20/2016)

It’s an audio-visually over-stylized, soft-spoken, yet more than eloquent fresco about the dark side of the eternal city that manages a quantum of characters, unprecedented violence, and metaphorical parables. Some of the threads could still use an extra knot at the end, but it is still an intense and exhausting viewing experience in the best sense. (01/15/2017)

This is one of those films I find it hard to evaluate. I wouldn’t even dream of criticizing the film for a lack of quality filmmaking. It was definitely there, the problem was that the first hour was mind-numbingly boring and soporific. I also didn’t learn anything new - gypsies and politicians are the same everywhere and prostitution is a dangerous profession. I just had to write this down: "So if you don't go away now, I'll chop your leg off, put it in the fridge and return it when you bring me the money.” All right then. (01/05/2020)

Every now and then, I watch something that leaves me speechless. I’m so bewitched – in a good way – that I’m completely smitten. I had this exact feeling after watching the contemporary gangster movie Suburra. The harsh fates of individual characters of different standings are connected by a monstrous construction of a future complex with a casino on the edge of Rome in such a precise way that I was dumbstruck. The directors have skillfully incorporated interesting characters into the vicious cycle of the mafia history and by doing so, they closed an important chapter of the contemporary Italian underground. Some of the scenes were more brutal, some of them less. But all of them were predominated by this disgusting loss of humanity that was always supported by a strange unearthly music of the French band M38 and it amplified the entire story, which felt as if it was happening on a different planet altogether. (08/08/2016)

A confident European genre film that may not offer the cool heroes or the polished scripts of its classic overseas competitors, but it’s nonetheless an example of wildly essential modern filmmaking that ignores convention and serves up such an audiovisual feast that it fully fills every second of its 130-minute runtime. I enjoyed the relentless pace, the explicit sex scenes and the rather naturalistic and believable brutality, and I really liked the work with the non-native music, which paradoxically gave the film an even more distinctive character in some scenes. The story is spread out among a large cast of characters, not a single one of whom an average viewer of sound mind could sympathise with or root for, but the narrative is extremely consistent and the editor has done an excellent job. A very big surprise, our cinema has a new model in Europe, where creative inspiration doesn't mean complete sci-fi – at least so I wish... 85% (01/11/2016)