[REALITY
screens Friday August 2nd at 6:45 pm and Sunday August 4th at 1:30 pm
at the Cleveland Museum of Art.]
Review by Bob Ignizio
When we first meet Luciano
(Aniello Arena), the protagonist of Matteo Garone's satirical comedy
REALITY, he seems
happy with his life. And well he should be. He has loving family, a
good job as a fishmonger, and a little side income from some sort of
scam selling kitchen robots that I didn't fully grasp – must be an
Italian thing. At a relative's wedding, Luciano meets Enzo (Raffaele
Ferrante), a past winner on Italy's version of Big Brother who has
been hired to offer a toast to the newlyweds. Luciano, a performer at
heart, does a little skit with the reality star and then gets on with
his life until his daughter encourages him to try out for the new
season of Big Brother.
Luciano isn't especially interested, but does it for his little girl.
Or so he says.
Having
auditioned, Luciano's perspective starts to change. Either that, or
maybe his true feelings come to the surface. Now he wants to be on
the show. And since he's such a likable character, we want him to get
on, too. But as the film goes on with no word from the show's
producers one way or another, the formerly reliable family man
starts to become obsessed with getting on TV to the point that we are
forced to reconsider whether we should really be rooting for this
guy.
In
Peter Weir's 1998 film THE
TRUMAN SHOW,
Jim Carrey played Truman, a man who suddenly learns that he has
unwittingly been the star of a reality television show, and that the
world is much bigger than he thought. Once he realizes this, he
decides to leave behind the comfort of his artificial bubble for the
excitement and unpredictability of the real world. 15 years later, we
find ourselves living in a world where you have to wonder how many
people would gladly put themselves in Truman's place and just stay in
the bubble, basking in the voyeuristic gaze of an audience and
leading a completely fabricated existence.
Director
Garrone and his co-screenwriters Ugo Chiti, Maurizio Braucci, and
Massimo Gaudioso keep things fairly lighthearted for the most part,
which is probably for the best. Taking potshots at reality TV is kind of like shooting fish in a
barrel, and what fun is that (unless it's part of a challenge on
Survivor)?
That allows REALITY
to effectively skewer the kind of society that could corrupt a
seemingly decent guy like Luciano without being heavy handed about
it. The film may be a bit too nice at times, and some of its observations about and our
modern fame obsessed culture are a far from fresh. Still, the film does manage to find a few fresh takes on the subject and deliver them in a funny, if low key, manner. 3 out of 4
stars.
The picture put me in mind of Scorsese's THE KING OF COMEDY, just updated for the reality-TV era (and not at all as edgy). I liked those fancy continuous-take sequences, though. Must've been a royal pain to shoot.
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