Actually, I really wanted to see this movie because I really was in the mood for a good movie. And why shouldn't this movie be good? All the right signs for it were there; positive reviews, it won international prizes everywhere and it has a great promising premise. But think again, this movie just isn't all that good, as it turned out.
Thing with this movie is that it isn't being told like it's a movie. The story is very fragmented. It follows multiple different characters, who aren't connected to each other- and their various different plot lines. This is what happens when you have 6(!) different writers involved with your project. The stories all seem very random and I would had really preferred it if the movie would have some more focus in it and a good main character you could also really care about. I understand that the movie tried to create a documentary like feeling to it, to make the movie very raw and realistic but thing is; this isn't a documentary on actual people and real events, it's a movie! Yes, I'm sure that if this actual was a documentary it would had worked out so much better and way more powerful and effective with all of its events and real emotions.
And that's really the biggest problem; I just couldn't care about anything that was happening in this movie to any of its characters. The characters aren't really properly introduced or buildup as likable enough characters, you start to care about. All I was like was; Good! Just let them all kill each other. There are no redeeming qualities that ever makes you think that there is anything good left in any of the characters and that they one day could live a normal life. This is also exactly the feeling and atmosphere that this movie tries to create but it does it in a far too artificial, forced and cheap way, so you just don't ever start to care about anything or anyone within this movie.
It makes the movie more pretentious than anything else really. It desperately tries to be something that it just never becomes; A good realistic movie, with genuine- and effective feelings and emotions to it.
One thing that makes the movie all the more pretentious is its camera-work. It's hand-held and tries to put you right in the middle of things but also this just comes across as too forced and artificial. Again, this is something that would had worked out well if this movie was actually a documentary on the Gomorrah in Scampia, in Naples, Italy.
I can definitely see and understand what this movie tried to do and achieve but mostly due to its lacking- and very fragmented storytelling, the movie falls short and fails to make an impression, especially on an emotional level.
5/10
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