Reality

Echoes of Luchino Visconti's Bellissima and Federico Fellini's Ginger & Fred reverberate around this swipe at celebrity culture from Gomorrah director Matteo Garrone. However, those cinematic touchstones only serve to emphasise the flimsiness of the satire and the mawkishness of the whimsy here, as Neapolitan fish seller Luciano (Aniello Arena) convinces himself that he has made such an impression on the casting directors of the Italian version of Big Brother that they have followed him from Rome to test his suitability for the reality TV show. He sells his business and becomes so gripped by delusions of grandeur once he starts behaving like a minor celebrity that his wife Maria (Loredana Simioli) and pious pal Michele (Nando Paone) struggle to save him. Arena is plausibly naive as the starstruck wannabe, while Marco Onorato's sinuous camerawork pitches the viewer into the heart of the mayhem, but Garrone's critique of Italy's current cultural vapidity is too indulgently affectionate and lacks both originality and bite.