Maccio Capatonda
Italiano Medio (film)

Just returned from the cinema in my city, back to reality, after watching the much-anticipated first film by Maccio Capatonda, "Italiano medio," which follows the trailer aired in 2012 on Antonello Piroso's show "Ma anche no." What can I say, the film is truly sensational! Nothing more and nothing less than what was expected: after creating dozens of trailers, our hero turned one of them into an actual movie, while still referencing others with great tragicomic effect. His team is the same as always: Rupert Sciamenna, Ivo Avido, and the trusty companion Herbert Ballerina. The film begins with the story of little Giulio Verme (not Giulio Rossi, as in the 2012 trailer), who had ignorant parents and then developed a strong critical sense. As he grows up, he dedicates himself to the environment and to improving the world. But then he meets AlfonZo Scarabocchio (alias Herbert Ballerina alias Luigi Luciano) who offers him the infamous IM pill, which reduces his brain usage from the well-known 20% to just 2%. After taking the diabolical pill, Giulio becomes the complete opposite of what he was: a womanizer, insolent, opportunistic, even a bit dishonest, and he ends up watching MasterVip, a clear parody of Big Brother and the society of television appearances. He ends up harming the Biopark he was involved with through the association with the slogan MOBBASTA (a clear reference) and damaging the water (this time a reference to "Fernet 9/11°"). The reason being that to make something important, it must be damaged. During his journey, Giulio "Italiano Medio" returns to Giulio "The Intellectual" and has to call Alfonzo for the pills. The first Giulio also has a girlfriend who leaves for Africa and after two weeks returns to see the new Giulio married to an "average Italian woman," the typical provocative woman (the excellent Barbara Tabita). Giulio pretends to be Ruud Gullit and ends up going with a lot of women and getting table seats at trendy venues, as well as posing for numerous "selfies" with fans, who are actual tablet-addicts. In the end, the film presents the battle between the first and second Giulio, with an interrogative ending, or rather a compromise: one can be committed and indifferent, healthy and drugged, love the committed woman, i.e., the girlfriend Franca, and the "woman with the skirt," that is Sharon, Barbara Tabita, indeed. The finale closes with our hero with three TVs, which he hated as a child, embracing the two women and pronouncing COPULATE, the "intellectual" version of SCREWING. The importance of compromise seems to be the underlying message of the film: one should neither be an average Italian nor too closed in anachronistic and hippy beliefs/conventions.

Back to reality... after seeing a splendid representation of it at the cinema. Rating: 5 stars without a doubt to the genius of Maccio Capatonda who doesn't surprise for the simple fact of having already surprised! If there is another Maccio film, I hope so, as long as it doesn't fall into self-celebration, perhaps the only real flaw in this film, where Mariottide also appears.