Pupi Avati
Gli Amici Del Bar Margherita

It's an unpleasant sensation that all of us have experienced at some point. Even the slightest noises in silence turn into pneumatic drills at night. Unexpectedly, a massive iceberg enters mercilessly disguised as chilly silence to highlight that the joke just made was better kept to oneself. Similarly, Pupi Avati's new film "Gli amici del Bar Margherita" instead of gifting me an hour and a half of enjoyable comedy, as I expected, left me completely indifferent. The chilling silence that covered and enveloped the cinema hall for the entire duration of the film makes me think I wasn't the only one with this impression. 90 minutes full of forced grins or very sad hints of laughter, as if trying to push a film with flat tires filled with stories lacking any above-the-line ideas. Everything is mediocrely normal.

The cast featuring among others Lo Cascio, Neri Marcoré, Abatantuono, Riciarelli and De Luigi does its job without disgrace or praise. The real problem lies in the screenplay, with lackluster dialogues and a collection of banal tragicomic stories that clumsily connect with each other, giving the idea of a poorly and hastily constructed plot. A hodgepodge set in 1950s Bologna that functions poorly and wobbles dangerously. In a light comedy, rhythm should be everything, backbone, muscles, and tendons; yet here, as the minutes pass, we sink into the seat and in the end almost get used to this slow agony. A hesitant progression perfectly in sync with the depressing tone of the voiceover of the most heartless and cynical among the protagonists, who, from the rules of Bar Margherita to the concluding photograph, tells a story that, as far as I'm concerned, could have stayed where it was.

I didn't enter the cinema expecting a masterpiece, but from Pupi Avati, I didn't expect such a mediocre and negligible work. Disappointed, I close this deliberately sparse review, hoping that my next night at the cinema redeems the 7 euros just poorly spent. I don't think it will be a Herculean task.

2 stars, a five and a half on a decimal scale.