Beata ignoranza

This attempt to recycle the 2015 SE DIO VUOLE /GOD WILLING opposition of Marco Giallini and Alessandro Gassman works out quite well, despite a change of direction half way through.

We start off with teacher Giallini, who confiscates his kids' cell 'phones at the start of his lesson, discovering his old rival Gassman has been appointed to his school with a philosophy of ignoring paperwork because everything they need is on the Net. They nearly come to blows to the delight of their students who's video of the confrontation goes viral.

Complications ensue when their shared daughter (see the movie!) arrives pregnant with her "quirky" film crew to have them switch their approaches for her documentary. This element gets lost as we explore the leads' character short comings - notably in their dealings with women. The appealing Valeria Bilello is particularly badly used.

There are a few attempts to open up the form, as with the early scenes of turning to the audience or Carolina Crescentini's answering back from the mortuary photo but mainly the piece coasts on the opposition of the two leads backed by skilled players and brisk high key film making.

Saying that this film addresses with the topic of social networks in a superficial way is to be too generous with the film, which after half an hour runs out of the very little it has to say. There are actually doubts if this theme is addressed at all, if not as a sort of carnivalesque background. Characters are caricatured to the extreme of ridicule, managing to overcome the squalor of Vanzina's films. At the end of the film I felt heartened that Maario Moricelli is not alive to experience the pitiful state of Italian comedy.