Smetto quando voglio

A film that innovates, finally after stale years, the Italian comedy genre, bringing into focus the up-to-date themes of drugs and the alleged uselessness of a college degree in Italy.

A group of old friends, former university professors, unite to produce a new type of legal drug: each one, with his knowledge, contributes to the success of the plan; carried out, it turns their boring lives around out of the blue.

Fast-paced and enjoyable, ''Smetto quando voglio'' succeeds, with an exceptional cast, in the arduous task of reconciling the crime and comedy genres, without coming across as the usual trash "cinepanettone". However, there is no shortage of clichés, the music is not the best and in the end the plot is not that innovative, leaving aside the aforementioned premise.

It remains a great film, which is quickly watched and which entertains and amuses, with a project that should definitely be seen more in Italy.

I'll just keep this to a fairly brief synopsis and let you know that the film pretty much has it all. Extremely funny/likeable characters, excellent plot/story-line, a lot of dark and light humour, just enough violence to make things realistic, all mixed together into an extremely enjoyable couple of hours. I didn't want the film to end, to tell you the truth.

What a concept - a bunch of ex-University professors i.e. intellectual nerds - stumble upon a way to make money by inventing a new drug molecule that is not on the illegal list in Italy. Through their combined biological/historical/mathematical knowledge, they happen to make one of the most sought after 'smart drugs' on the market. But of course things get very complicated and go south very quickly.

I'll leave it at that, but you will absolutely love the ride. Again, a brilliant effort and one of the best movies I've seen in a while.

Finally an Italian comedy that eschews the stylistic elements that have been imposed in recent years with the so-called "Cinepanettoni"! This movie works so well because of many factors: it makes you laugh, has a cast in a state of grace, it has a nearly flawless script, it's well directed and, unusual for an Italian comedy, it's very close to the technical quality standards of international movies. Also, as all good comedies should do, the movie addresses the contemporary issue of young people who, despite being far too skilled, are not able to make a living because of the scarcity of opportunities. Not bad for a first-time director!

Others have pointed out at all the different, and actually quite legitimate, inspirations from Breaking Bad to La banda degli onesti, etc.

What I see here is a caustic condemnation for a system which wastes young brains in a corrupt, inefficient loop of despair.

It is sad but unfortunately true that some are overprotected while others have to struggle endlessly.

The final scene is quite subdued but could have been exploited in a more dramatic way.

While I was reluctant to watch it, fearing the usual unpleasant onslaught of so-called New Italian Comedy, I'm glad I finally did. And can recommend it if you like the bittersweet bite of social critique with a few interspersed gags.

The Italian equivalent of Breaking Bad is not surprisingly somewhat more light-hearted and funny, the film's popular success seeing it nominated for 10 David Di Donatello awards. Smetto Quando Voglio (I Can Quit Anytime I Want) stars Edoardo Leo as Pietro, a professor of molecular biology who is finding that his work is not really being valued at the college he teaches. He has a terrific new research thesis, potentially Nobel prize winning material, but no-one even understands it, much less respects his work.

More importantly, as far as his wife is concerned, all his research doesn't pay the mounting bills, so Pietro hasn't the heart to tell her that he is in danger of losing his job. Even the private tutoring isn't paying, his students preferring to spend huge amounts of money on recreational drugs; expensive drugs that are cheap to make. Bing! Cheap and easy to make for a professor in molecular biology, particularly one who has just developed a new theoretical program that can be tweaked to be a psychotropic substance that isn't on the list of illegal substances because it doesn't exist yet.

Gathering the best minds of academia behind it - all former colleagues of Pietro who have been left struggling in badly paid manual labour jobs - not only is it going to be the best drug ever, it's going to be the best organised operation ever. As long as they can keep from attracting the attentions of the local mafia, as long as Pietro's wife doesn't find out what he is doing and as long as all the money and hookers that come as part of the package don't impinge on the success of their operation. Obviously that's exactly what happens, but luckily they can give it up anytime they want...

Smetto Quando Voglio succeeds partly because it has a basis in the reality that reflects the problems of funding and the value given to the academic professions, and the difficulty it has competing when students have other 'outside interests', but it mainly works because it is quite funny. It's largely a situational comedy, the main joke being the idea of a bunch of eggheads including an archaeologist, a cultural anthropologist, an economist and a molecular biologist, having to apply their learning to being petrol pump attendants or a dishwasher in a restaurant kitchen, and then becoming drug kingpins who rob pharmacies with guns from the Napoleonic wars.

The humour is light-hearted then, and there's nothing too flash about the script or the direction, although the high-saturation luminous colour scheme does give the film a nice contemporary feel that just makes the drug-running professors look even more out of place in the criminal underworld. It's the performances that keep it running, headed up by Edoardo Leo, who would go on to direct his own version of an unlikely team setting themselves up in business against the mob in Noi e la Giulia in 2015.