{"id":8381,"date":"2020-06-04T19:46:48","date_gmt":"2020-06-04T19:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/?p=8381"},"modified":"2020-06-04T19:46:48","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T19:46:48","slug":"tommaso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/tommaso\/","title":{"rendered":"Tommaso"},"content":{"rendered":"
[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Willem Dafoe is at his watchable best in Abel Ferrara\u2019s often confusing study of a troubled indie film director trying to deal with his inner demons. The writer-director delivers his first scripted drama in five years after making what\u2019s called off-the-cuff documentaries. Dafoe previously worked with Ferrara on Pasolini,<\/i> the biopic of Italian writer, director and poet Pier Paolo Pasolini.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This could be considered a confessional autobiographical film since Dafoe plays the director trying to conceive his next project. He\u2019s an American living in Rome with his much younger wife and 3-year-old daughter. Ferrara shot this on a shoestring using his own apartment as the setting. Ferrara\u2019s wife, Cristina Chiriac co-stars as Tommaso\u2019s wife, Nikki, and the couple\u2019s own daughter, Anna Ferrara, plays Deedee, the little one they always refer to as \u201cthe Baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dafoe\u2019s performance is, by far, the best aspect of this film. He finds a way to make every scene an interesting progression of his descent. The story arc takes the audience through the devolution of Tommaso. What begins as an idyllic vision of a middle aged family man finding his best self in a quaint Rome neighborhood slowly disintegrates into uncontrollable rage. Tommaso had been an alcohol and drug addict who works hard to stay clean and sober, frequently attending AA-type meetings.[\/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”8388″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”8387″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”8393″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner][vc_column_text]Nikki is a beautiful woman from Moldova who is 3 decades younger than Tommaso.\u201cThe baby\u201d is the glue that holds the family together, but also the distraction that interrupts their own relationship. We hope, knowing that Chiriac is the director\u2019s wife , that her portrayal, on some level, is not like a mirror of her real life. It\u2019s a very brave performance. We have to wonder if the making of this film affected their own spousal relationship. Ferrara himself is 67 years old.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One shortcoming of Ferrara\u2019s script is that he shies away from delving deeper into Tommaso\u2019s work as a filmmaker. We are only given brief glimpses of his ideas. Seeing what he was working on would have been a more compelling reveal on Ferrara\u2019s own life. A few shots showing Tomasso\u2019s storyboarding process and an imagined scene of an actual bear attack are startling and effective, though all too brief. They piques curiosity but go nowhere.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Joe Delia\u2019s music adds a generally melancholy tone to the atmosphere. The subdued color palate also adds that same slightly oppressive feel to the film that is about this man who is desperate for happiness that eludes him. Ferrara also adds a Terrance Malick-like animated explosion sequence that again, comes out of nowhere without context. Just one of these many moments that are just tossed into the mix.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides working on his film, Tomasso also leads acting classes that generally show him in enjoying leading the group of young people in the creative process. But there are some bizarre side trips that appear to be dream sequences thrown in. In one of his classes he\u2019s engaged in intensely erotic movement with a naked woman. And again in a coffee shop. These encounters with nude women come and go without explanation. They don\u2019t feel real but are they fantasies or flashbacks?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s notable that Ferrara chooses not to take the predictable path and allow Tommaso to return to his addictions as the rage, from his point of view,\u00a0 <\/span>builds at Nikki. Instead we see that she provokes him by not trying to keep the relationship alive. In the middle of a very sexy and sensuous love scene, \u201cthe Baby\u201d cries out and Nikki runs to her side.\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”8386″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”8392″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1\/3″][vc_single_image image=”8389″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column_inner][\/vc_row_inner][vc_column_text]Ferrara chose to make this almost entirely about the slow breakdown of the husband-wife relationship and gives subtle hints of the betrayal that\u2019s coming. Tomasso observes his wife in the park, for instance, but chooses not to confront her. The camera quickly tilts and pans giving us brief views of the action, but only enough to get the message across that all is not well with this marriage.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The ultimate destination of all this anger is self-destruction. Is Ferrara\u2019s message that men need to find outlets for their rage before it overtakes them or simply about a man who truly changed his life, got clean, but still felt betrayed?<\/p>\n

Dafoe shows both side of this coin. Especially in a scene where he goes into a rage as he confronts a drunk man screaming underneath his apartment window. He de-escalates the situation, gets his anger under control, ends up shaking hands and giving the man a hand-out. Good and evil live side by side as Ferrara demonstrates throughout the film and with a very dramatic ending. Given all that, Willam Dafoe\u2019s performance as Tommaso<\/i> is still\u00a0 <\/span>very much worth this trip to Rome.<\/p>\n

Kino Lorber Marquee\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>115 Minutes\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 <\/span>NR<\/p>\n

Virtual Cinemas include Gene Siskel screening room, New York\/Lincoln Center, LA\/ Laemmle, Acropolis Cinema & Lumiere Cinema.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Go to https:\/\/kinomarquee.com\/tommaso<\/a> for more listings near you.\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_video link=”https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=uh627UYLjyE” el_width=”80″ align=”center” css_animation=”fadeInUp”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section]\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Willem Dafoe is at his watchable best in Abel Ferrara\u2019s often confusing study of a troubled indie film director trying to deal with his inner demons. The writer-director delivers his first scripted drama in five years after making what\u2019s called off-the-cuff documentaries. Dafoe previously worked with Ferrara on Pasolini, the biopic of Italian writer, director […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8385,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8381"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8396,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8381\/revisions\/8396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviesandshakers.com\/staging\/4428\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}