Director Lattuada was reportedly acclaimed for his oddball tonal shifts, which Mafioso offers in spades.

| Original Score: 4/6 | Jul 12, 2007

The transitional gears never grind. They just keep clicking until you know you're along for the entire ride.

| Original Score: A- | May 11, 2007

The sort of masterpiece that will obliterate memories of lesser, later efforts in the 'meeting the parents' comedy lineage. Brilliant.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 26, 2007

The film ripens in an unanticipated way, nimbly shifting from near farce to something quite a bit darker.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Apr 26, 2007

Mafioso may be 45 years old, but it's as bracingly relevant as anything else in theaters today. Even in the heat of a dry Sicilian summer, the film looks fresh as a lemon tree. And when you bite down hard, it's just as bitter.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 20, 2007

If you crossed Meet the Parents with The Godfather and filmed it 45 years ago in Italian, you might come close to Mafioso, a black-and-white gem from 1962 whose appearance in local theaters is inexplicable but most welcome.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 13, 2007

This is brilliant, subtle acting. And Lattuada's filmmaking matches it, with his blend of neo-realism and easy theatricality. He doesn't waste a shot.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 23, 2007

Nothing quite prepares you for the unique experience of this film. It's an offer that you ... well, you know. Leave the gun, take the cannolis. Mangiate bene.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 16, 2007

Mafioso may have been made in another era, but it stands as a classy, even radical rebuke to the film school posers who keep recycling the same tired gangster tropes.

| Mar 15, 2007

It takes a while to adjust to its rhythm, but this is essential viewing for cinephiles.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 15, 2007

Filmed in Milan, Sicily, and New York, Alberto Lattuada's 1962 black comedy is one of his most critically suc

| Mar 10, 2007

Is it a droll drama? A dark comedy? Let's just say that the film's startling shifts in mood fit this movie about a man and country divided. And that it appears to be padrino to The Godfather.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 9, 2007

Unclassifiable, ultimately gripping 1962 film about a Sicilian native who discovers he can't resist the corrupting power of what The Godfather would later dub 'this Sicilian thing.'

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 9, 2007

Strange, entertaining and disquieting.

Full Review | Mar 9, 2007

The [main] actor's every-paesan persona makes the film's coda such an effectively bittersweet punch line: Behind every local-boy-made-good success story, there apparently lies a history of violence and tears.

| Original Score: 4/6 | Feb 3, 2007

[Actor] Alberto Sordi lifts buffoonery to the level of high art.

| Feb 2, 2007

A magnificent film almost no one knows about, this hidden classic offers a wider variety of pleasures than most contemporary works can even aspire to.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jan 26, 2007

Watching this buoyantly melancholy dark comedy, originally released in 1962, is like discovering a lost world.

Full Review | Jan 20, 2007

Mafioso isn't likely to receive the critical exultation accorded Army of Shadows, but still it should not be missed.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jan 19, 2007

[Alberto Sordi has] a marvelous performance in a marvelous movie, one that sneaks up on you while you're watching it.

| Original Score: A- | Jan 18, 2007