In Theaters: August 19, 2022
On DVD/Blu-ray: January 17, 2023
Comedy | 1h 44m
Based on 6 votes and 1 reviews.
That’s what we’re playing with, the idea that our expectations are shaped by how culture depicts certain experiences. You go to Italy, you’re either going to fall in love or fall into a giallo horror movie. The results an underlying theme of expectation versus reality. It’s easy to project onto things we don’t have, and imagine how amazing they're, but in reality and practice, the shine sometimes comes off, and it isn’t necessarily the great thing that you thought it would be. There’s a fantastic element to what we imagine going on a trip is. We envision this life-changing experience, like we’re going to go through this rite of passage. We’re going to find the love of our life, or find ourselves, thanks to pop culture and media. The score for Body Double by Pino Donaggio is always playing in our head. But there's no classiness and we also miss that sleaziness underlying it. And this late ’70s, early ’80s vision of Italy is not true. The benefit of having not enough time is that you've to be really creative in how you spend that time. Knowing you've to be light on your feet, move as things happen, spark to new ideas, and also be aware of your limitations, all those things we miss in this film. And it results in this frantic energy that really suits the film, especially if the story itself has a nervy, frantic energy. To have a comedic mind, you’re able to see certain incongruities, and see things from different angles and play with things at different levels. There’s an amount of irony necessary. Comedians, or people with a comedic sensibility, have a wider perspective on reality. Reality isn’t purely dramatic. Life is not a melodrama. As sad and horrible as things are, funny things do happen. More than adhering to any one genre. The film can not express that. You've to incorporate comedy and pathos. Because just one or the other is too much. We love the hybridized version. It's a total shit show. Written by Gregory Mann