Matteo Garrone's Reality is a somber look at the cult of celebrity and one man's unquenchable and deluded desire for fame and fortune. Luciano (Aniello Arena) is a husband and the father of three young children, a kind-hearted fish monger who dreams of a better life. However, after auditioning for the Italian version of Big Brother, his grasp on reality steadily loosens as he obsesses about appearing on the show, ultimately sacrificing all that is important to him. Arena is great as the delusional dreamer, but what really stands out is Garrone's brilliant direction, most notably the lengthy and perfectly blocked lengthy takes that exist throughout the film. While it may not be for all tastes, it is a movie with an important message.

Garrone is a pleasure to watch. The long takes, the atmosphere, the photography, the dreamlike music and the colorful characters: simply a pleasure. The movie is a bitter-sweet journey into obsession and fate, and reality tv and religion are the 2 training horses. "Never give up".

Matteo Garrone made a name for himself internationally back in 2008 with the release of Gomorrah, an Italian crime epic with a lot to say about the sociopolitical state of his home country. Gomorrah won Garrone the Grand Prix at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, and his latest, Reality, won the same award in 2012, though the two films couldn't be any more different. Reality is an ink-black comedy about a fishmonger with aspirations to appear on reality television. What begins as an affable portrait of a family turns into something damn near approaching tragedy-a psychological devolution brought on my delusions of bright-lights-big-city grandeur. It's a tough film to watch in some respects because it doesn't hide anything, it's rarely subtle, and it doesn't pull any punches. But not unlike the reality shows Garrone seems to be commenting on (if tangentially), it's hard to look away from Reality. Our "hero" is Luciano (Aniello Arena), a really charming guy who owns a fish stand in Naples and has three kids with his wife, Maria (Loredana Simioli). They live in a ruinous (but beautiful) complex with their entire extended family-aunts, uncles, parents, brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews. And the family is a hoot. You won't mistake them for Italy's upper crust, but they have good hearts and are mostly happy. Things take a turn for Luciano after he auditions for the reality show Big Brother. He impresses the casting crew enough to earn a callback in Rome, but he's one of seemingly thousands to do so, and for some reason, he's utterly convinced that he'll be asked to enter the house. Upon returning home, he thinks every stranger is a spy sent by the show to observe him in his natural habitat. He talks of selling his business because he'll be set for life after winning the show's top prize. He begins stalking a former contestant who he met once at a wedding. His whole world is going to hell, and he doesn't have a clue. The film works primarily because Aniello Arena gives such a dedicated performance. His Luciano has a big personality, and you can definitely see him on a show like Big Brother. But there's no super compelling reason why he'd be a casting shoo-in. And when he gets on this kick, waiting for the show to give him the go-ahead, Arena goes for it with a gusto. He becomes truly scary without sacrificing any of the qualities we've come to know him for-charmer, loving father, etc. By the film's haunting final shot, he is a man absolutely consumed by an obsession, but the transformation was fluid and, ultimately, quite an astounding achievement. Reality also looks great. The film is bright, but Garrone employs a yellow-green tint to the surroundings, which visually remind us something in this world is amiss. He's also quite fond of overhead shots, but some, including the film's opening and closing shots, are bursting with subtext and meaning. While it might seem like Garrone is commenting on the unfortunate side effects of the reality 온라인카지노추천 revolution, the film's themes feel more universal than that. Shots of Luciano almost lusting after Enzo, the star of the most recent Big Brother season, speak more toward the nature of celebrity-how fickle it is, how close it is to us now. Because we can speed up the process nowadays, it gives people like Luciano unreasonable expectations, feeding the sometimes deluded notion that they deserve the adoration of the masses. Reality filters all these ideas into one sad individual. It's a character study of the highest order. http://www.johnlikesmovies.com/reality-review/

Sharp dark satire that provides insight into obsession of fame and the famous.

Sarcastic & thought-provoking.

Once again, I seem to be alone in my opinion on this film. I watched it again just to be sure I hadn't missed something. For me, this movie was just dull.

Matteo Garrone, the 2008 winner of the Grand Prize of the Jury at the Cannes Film Festival for the excellent <i>Gomorrah</i>, transfers his ambitious directing style with hundreds of extras, dozens of characters and invigorating environments to bring something that might sound questionable at first glance: a comedy about a charismatic fish stand owner who agrees to audition for the next Big Brother show and, in the wait of his possible acceptance into the House, develops an increasing paranoia that begins to affect his own life, his family relationships and his acquaintances. I'd never have the act of stereotyping as one of my intentions, but you know how the Italians are filmwise: intense dramatic overacting (which makes everything even more fun), complete families giving opinions actively about everything, a dynamic directing that moves the camera constantly here and there, towards every corner, because something is happening everywhere, all the time. Garrone is no exception to this approach of giving life to his little universe, and of portraying the complete family of the protagonist, which in this case, allows the entire plot to acquire a meaning. It is very important to point out that the topic of obsession presented here is tragic, even if overused. Garrone's scope allows to take a conventional audience message to a higher level of entertainment, making the situations more absorbing and his paranoia more tangible, especially with his occasional use of complicated long shots. Unfortunately, he never found the balance between drama, tragedy, comedy and satire. At the end, however, it is a story worth remembering, with a big payoff at the end. Personally, the ending scared me. 76/100

Another masterpiece by Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah was the other one). Very interesting concept about a guy's obsession to transform his life and move away from his 'Reality'. The interesting fact about the lead actor is that he is serving life sentence for a multiple murders in Naples and was allowed to shoot for the movie during the day!

Gli do 7/10 solo perché il film è ricercato nella fotografia e nei costumi e in generale si vede che c'è del talento artistico in chi lo ha realizzato; però ha anche delle pecche importanti. Primo il regista che usa la telecamera a braccio (o almeno l'effetto è quello) e allo stesso tempo disegna molte scene quasi irreali e fiabesche (su tutte la scena del matrimonio), fatte di colori e abiti molto forti (es: la famiglia che va a cinecittà è vestita come "I Tenenbaum"). A mio avviso le due cose cozzano, la telecamera che si muove come se fosse una telecamera non professionale va bene per i film crudi e realisti (andava bene in Gomorra infatti), non per ricreare immagini perfette come quelle delle fiabe (dove ci vuole una fotografia più quadrata e pulita). Inoltre il film vuole parlare di come ci si può ubriacare di successo (soprattutto quello effimero della televisione), però presenta una storia troppo strampalata per risultare credibile (e con poco mordente aggiungo io). Il regista voleva portare qualcosa di innovativo e forte, però secondo me mancano proprio l'idea complessiva di come rappresentare questa storia (che poi è il lavoro del regista).

Dark comedy...Grande Fratello

Italian melodrama with high doses of comedy. Luciano is a Neapolitan fishmonger and part time scam artist that has a comfortable life with his wife Maria, their kids and his extended family. One day he decides to apply to be a contestant in the reality 온라인카지노추천 show, Big Brother and is well liked to the point where he suspects he might be chosen. The possibility to be famous dazes Luciano making him loose grip in his real problems, in his "reality". He becomes addicted to the program believing everybody around him are television producers spying on him. This movie depicts a very common issue: the obsession for celebrities. Long gone are the days where kids wanted to be doctors or architects or firemen. Now everybody wants to be famous. Luciano is a man trying to spice up his ordinary life and is seduced by the easy money Big Brother's contestants seem to make and he falls hard for it. We are able to connect with him at the beginning of the film, an outgoing business man with the dream of becoming a housemate in the Big Brother's house but he then softly descends into delusion and finally madness. As spectators we slowly detach from him because he completely looses his common sense. It is an original and interesting film full of dynamism, with powerful performances and dialogues, a believable plot and an underlying rejection of celebrity culture.

A critique of the society that is bewitched by the idiocy of the reality shows but told in a slow and boring way. Basically the movie keeps saying the same things in the same way for its entire duration.

Billed as a comedy, it is really anything but. The main character's obsession with making it on Reality 온라인카지노추천 starts a downward spiral that destroys his mostly stable life. He gives up his own reality in an attempt to achieve broader recognition and fame, but he loses both realities in the process.

Film sicuramente ben fatto e sicuramente rappresentativo di un mondo (quello italiano in generale, anche se qui viene rappresentato lo spaccato napoletano) che ormai si basa solo sull'apparire e non sull'essere. Il tentativo di avere quei famosi 15 minuti di celebrità "promessi" da Woody Allen è portato quindi all'estremo, e tutto quanto ci gira attorno è parimenti ingigantito. Devo tuttavia dire che non mi ha fatto impazzire, il voto è quindi un voto all'intento sociale e all'impegno nel creare qualcosa di originale.

A poor attempt to jump on the reality-show zeitgeist with a portrayal of one man's descent into delusion.

A fishmonger from Naples loses his grip on reality as he waits to hear back from his audition for the Italian version of the "Big Brother" 온라인카지노추천 show. Slow but rich, with layers of satire and allegory and great long tracking shots of glorious Naples.

Velmi uveritelny obraz sucastnej spolocnosti

a movie that's not one that tells you what to think or not .a very good Character study that makes you think about your dreams to be better than you are but how to not loess your self . could have been cut down but not at all a bad ride

the natural answer to "Cinema Paradiso"

A partly funny yet ultimately sad tale of a man whose hope for success spirals him down into paranoia and destruction. Brilliantly acted and deftly directed, this deliberately paced and consuming drama about fame and it's broken promises is a must see.