Loose Cannons (2010)

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Turkish writer/director Ferzan Ozpetek (His Secret Life, Saturn in Opposition, Facing Windows, Sacred Heart, Steam:The Turkish Bath, etc) has created yet another sensitive, warmly humorous, intelligent movie in LOOSE CANNONS (MINE VAGANTI), a film he co-wrote with Ivan Cotroneo. The film is filled with an extraordinary cast of Italian actors, most of whom we do not know but who deliver some of the most memorable characterizations in recent years. The title for the film 'loose cannons' refers to an irresponsible and reckless individual whose behavior (either intended or unintended) endangers the group he or she belongs to. There could not be a better title for this film that examines family life in contemporary Italy.The film opens with a prelude of a beautiful woman in a bridal gown running across the fields toward the ancient house where she embraces a man Nicola (Giorgio Marchesi, watch his star rise!) and then is lead to her planned wedding to another man. The story then begins. Tommaso (Riccardo Scamarcio) is the youngest son of the Cantone family who own and operate a pasta factory in southern Italy. At a family dinner, parents Vincenzo (Ennio Fantastichini) and Stefania (Lunetta Savino )Cantone plan on turning over the factory to their two sons, Antonio Cantone (Alessandro Preziosi) and Tommaso Cantone. The younger Tommaso, who has returned home from business school in Rome for this dinner, has his own important news which he plans on divulging at that dinner. Beforehand, he tells Antonio his news. He is not in business school and is not at all interested in running the factory, leaving that to Antonio. Rather, he wants to stay in Rome to be a writer - he has submitted a manuscript of a novel to a publisher - but more importantly that he is gay. Tommaso is certain that their parents will respond with anger and be non-supportive. But before Tommaso can make his statement at the dinner, Antonio, who has been working at the factory for years, drops his own bombshell of news that HE is gay on the family, which results in Vincenzo disowning Antonio and having a mild heart attack. Tommaso feels that he has no other choice now but to keep quiet, stay in the closet, and remain at home to run the factory while his father recuperates. A beautiful worker at the factory, Teresa (Paola Minaccioni) though she has problems of her own, is supportive and close to Tommaso, giving the family the idea that all is 'straight' with Tommaso. But a visit from Rome by Tommaso's flamboyant gay friends - including Tommaso's lover, Marco (Carmine Recano) - may make life difficult for Tommaso as he tries to balance his priorities in life. His sister Elena (Bianca Nappi) reassures Tommaso that she has know of his sexual preference for years and loves him just the same. Tommaso's paternal grandmother (Ilaria Occhini) who started the factory, who is known as the loose cannon of the family and who has a long kept secret of her own, may have her own say in what happens in the family. The ending of the film draws all the conflicts to conclusion in a deeply tender fashion.The cast is large and consistently excellent. But it is Ozpetek's genius that shines though in controlling every aspect of this very rewarding film. Another treasure from Italy. In Italian with English subtitles. Grady Harp, June 12

Juxtaposing with other Ozpetek's films I have watched (chronically STEAM: THE Turkish BATH 1997, LAST HAREM 1999, THE IGNORANT FAIRIES 2001, FACING WINDOWS 2003, SATURN IN OPPOSITION 2007), this time Ozpetek is palpably much smoother and more effortless to deal with his gay-oriented hallmark, shunning from all the melancholy and narcissism most homosexual films shamelessly over-exploit. This film is struggling to overthrow FACING WINDOWS from the crown of my favorite Ozpetek's work (I do need a fresh re-watch of STEAM though). I do not dare to spoil anything here, one prominent astonishment comes at the near end, when the camera fluidly couples with different times, emanates a wonderful visual and spiritual poignancy which exactly one would love to experience from watching a decent film! The cast may not be perfectly splendid, but every character is worth of some acknowledge for its ensemble undertaking, in particular for Ilaria Occhini (the grandmother in the film), a royal poise exuding from her own dignity, which counter-balances the dramatic banality of the coming-out-of-the-closet plight (namely a shade abominable presence of Ennio Fantastichini). Our leading man Riccardo Scamarcio (from THREE STEPS OVER HEAVEN 2004) may be in lack of a certain gay temperament as the chemistry between him and an irresistibly alluring Nicole Grimaudo is way more tangible here. The comedy part in the film is somewhat showy but properly amusing; the intermittent interruption of grandma's marriage is adorably empathetic, also I cherish the balmy score (from Pasquale Catalano) and the moot ending which insinuates a positive perspective of the philosophy of our beings. The blatant snub of 2011 Davide di Donatello awards (only one nomination for BEST MUSIC) is atrociously staggering in my opinion, but it will not stop Ozpetek from coming to be among the most promising virtuoso in the contemporary Italian cinema.

Oh dear ! Don't be fooled - when I first saw a 60 second trailer for this movie, it gave the impression of a being feel-good, high-camp, celebration of gay life. (Mamma Mia meets the Bird Cage). I've just watched the main feature and nothing could be further from the truth. This is a melodrama full of angst and regret, with the portrayal of it's gay characters and reactions of their family members 30 years out of date. Mum to doctor about her son 'can he be cured and made normal again' - father disowning gay son and having heart-attack from the shock and shame brought on the family etc. When the posse of gay friends arrive from the big city, they too appear to be no more than a two-dimensional line up of Village People rejects. The film neither educates nor entertains - just reinforces reactions to stereotypes. Misguided. 2/10

Having recently seen Loose Cannons and Animal Kingdon it was great to see such strong matriarchal figures in both films. Women of a certain age giving unbelievable performances in rather different circumstances and very different moral situations. I was so impressed with the grandmother in Loose Cannons and how her personal experience of thwarted love was keenly developed in her grandchildren and her encouragement to be their own people, especially words after at her funeral spoken by her.The grandmother in Animal Kingdom had a very different situation and was trying equally hard to manage her mentally unwell children after her only 'healthy' son is gunned down.The difference was opening up the world for her family or closing down to only what you know, ie the criminal world of Melbourne in the 1980's Both tremendous films and awesome performances from all the crew in both films, but I guess my star goes to Guy Pearce as the good cop in Animal Kingdom