Paolo Sorrentino
This Must Be The Place

THE REVIEW

The first “made in U.S.A.” production by Sorrentino presents itself as a “coming-of-age novel.”

-Accusation: Cheyenne, a masterful Sean Penn in the role of a washed-up rock star trapped in his own media persona, is 50 years old.

-Defense: to quote that great 50-year-old named Mike Watt, “life is made for learning.”

 The protagonist's depressing daily routine is shattered by the news of his father's fate: “died of old age, a disease that doesn't exist.”

From goth to Shoah, the step might be shorter than one would believe if your father has a fake phone number tattooed on his arm.

Our anti-hero finds himself, more or less willingly, continuing a quest started by his (now late) father.

And we are in a sort of road-movie, during which we meet a gallery of fragile and marginalized humanity.

Images and stories that, told with “Calvinian lightness” (meaning Italo!), gradually provide answers, including those Cheyenne needs to abandon a mask that no longer represents him and be himself.

Or at least try (which isn't trivial, at 50 as it is at 11).

Two hours of superb storytelling through images that, with the growing rhythm of a snowball, between brilliant dialogue, enlightening reflections, magnificent acting performances, and masterful direction, give us a small-great masterpiece.