Bad Tales (2020)

This is a fairly savage indictment of suburban family living. Set on the outskirts of Rome - but it could as easily be London or Paris, this swaps the role normalcies of aspects of parenthood and visits the perceived sins of the parents back on themselves by way of their own children. Having been brought up in a comfortable enough swamp of ennui and uninspired hopelessness, it’s the children who decide that vengeance will be their’s as they, often entirely independently, plot revenge on those whose physical and cerebral inertia they feel has condemned them to perpetuate the mundanity of their parent’s lives. The theme is also quite portentous as although these families live in close proximity, there is little sense of community here. Instead, we have quite a potent sense of isolation that is only going to be exacerbated by social media trends that further negate the need for these youngsters to physically interact with anyone face-to-face. The parents range from the lovingly indifferent to the selfishly unbothered whilst the kids manage to come up with some remarkably grown up strategies to inflict their revenge, and along the way we expose and sometimes reinforce sexual stereotyping that does nobody any favours. Honestly, save for Barbara Chichiarelli’s powerful performance as “Dalila”, I didn’t find the acting or writing talent here especially noteworthy, but I’d probably edge the youngsters like Tommaso Di Cola as working harder to actually create personas that are more natural and deserving of our sympathy, or at least our engagement. It’s really the emotional aridness and almost auto-pilot nature of daily existence that raises the hairs on the back of your neck. Perhaps it’s familiarity? This has something of a documentary look to it as it sums life up as little more than a plodding precursor to death, with little to motivate the upcoming generations whose societal attitudes are already worryingly introspective.