Sugar Baby

When a desperate need to make money to save their house befalls an Italian mother and teenage daughter, they turn to the old solution of selling their bodies. There is also the problem of housing the grandmother who is helpless without their support. Unlike the past solution of prostitution, the two use the Internet to sell their bodies remotely by the use of a webcam. Well acted by the leads, there is little actual exposure to titillate the viewer but the director relies on an attractive cast to tell the story and as it unfolds, their desperation creates a tension that needs to be resolved one way or the other. Kept me watching and the photography is excellent.

The film features Matilda De Angelis (most will know her as the femme fatale from The Undoing) who plays a young woman that becomes a camgirl for some much needed extra cash, mainly to keep her mother from losing their flat, due to big debt.

Now, you might be saying that we've seen this type of scenario before. But I surely haven't seen another movie where the daughter tries to convince her conservative and reluctant mother to also become a camgirl - and with the mother eventually agreeing.

So then you have a mother and daughter doing the cam thing separately within their own bedrooms, while the wheelchair-bound grandma sits alone in the living room, unaware of the current developments.

Then there's the old pervy pharmacy owner that fancies getting it on with sex workers on the side, which, presumably, his wife chooses to ignore in favour of a 'stable' marriage.

Until their new employee at the pharmacy introduces the old man to the anonymous pleasures of the dark web, which leads to him trawling the net for something new and exciting - which comes in the form of a young girl that puts her virginity up for sale.

"Youtopia" (2018), directed by Berardo Carboni, is a film that attempts to tackle complex themes such as financial despair, the use of the body as currency, and the alienation brought about by technology. However, despite its ambitious intentions, the result is deeply uneven. On one hand, the film features standout moments, such as Matilda De Angelis's performance, which brings a captivating honesty and vulnerability to her character. The relationship between her and her mother, played by Donatella Finocchiaro, is believable and painful, with a constant tension regarding the morally questionable decisions they are forced to make. The social critique present in the plot, particularly regarding the objectification of women and financial exploitation, is disturbing and, in many aspects, effective. The cinematography is one of the highlights, with well-composed images that convey the emotional weight of the characters.

On the other hand, the film suffers from the unnecessary inclusion of virtual reality scenes that do more to hinder than enhance the narrative. These scenes are confusing and disjointed, as noted by one critic, and seem to distract from the central drama, undermining the overall tone of the work. The attempt to blend the virtual with the real lacks subtlety, resulting in a final product that feels forced rather than enriching the emotional conflict of the characters. Another problematic aspect is the pacing. The slow pace, which could serve to build an atmosphere of growing despair, becomes tedious at times. Additionally, the film's ending is, at best, ambiguous, leaving some important issues unresolved in a manner that feels more like a rushed conclusion than a thought-out ending. In summary, "Youtopia" has good intentions and some powerful moments, but stumbles over narrative elements that make the experience confusing and at times frustrating. The film explores relevant themes but lacks a cohesive execution that does justice to the depth it aims to achieve. The mother's attitude in "Youtopia" is undoubtedly one of the film's most disturbing issues. From the beginning, we see a maternal figure who, instead of protecting her daughter and seeking more dignified alternatives to handle their financial difficulties, pushes the young woman into prostitution. It is almost impossible not to question the role of a mother who should be a guardian and moral reference for her daughter, but instead chooses to throw her into a degrading situation with apparent remorse.

The fact that she is a single mother already raises suspicions about her past choices. The film itself alludes to her history by mentioning that she "gave" herself to another man before the father of her daughter, suggesting irresponsible and promiscuous behavior. Instead of learning from her mistakes, she perpetuates the cycle of degradation, now using her daughter as a tool to solve financial problems. This decision seems to reflect not just desperation but a total disregard for her daughter's emotional and physical well-being. By allowing her daughter to be "auctioned" for her virginity, the mother completely abandons her role as a protector and becomes complicit in a process of exploitation that places the young woman in situations of extreme vulnerability. It is difficult to watch this film without feeling anger at a mother who not only fails to protect but also actively and directly pushes her daughter into a life of prostitution, without concern for the devastating consequences this may have. In the end, the film makes it clear that this mother is a weak and irresponsible figure, unable to deal with her own past mistakes and who prefers to sacrifice her daughter's dignity rather than seek more ethical and humane solutions.

Youtopia is a catchy title, as is Matilde de Angelis. The result of the feature film, however, is ambivalent. On the one hand there is a strong Italian characterisation, the slowness, the interpretation of the characters; on the other hand there is the message: Youtopia is about those things that are not said but are there.

The film, recognised as being of cultural interest with a contribution from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, plunges us at first into a dark seabed, only to re-emerge in the silence of two fishermen, father and son.

Then a series of scenes follow: a woman exercises at home in front of a motivational video.

Remember Cinderella? We took her to Eurodisney!, the fisherman father - Alessandro Haber - upon finding the toy begins to brood thoughts that we do not understand, that his son does not understand either.

The woman, Laura - Donatella Finocchiaro -, talks to her coach, but to no avail. A provocative girl dances as she undresses a little, winking at no one knows to whom.

The setting is all Roman. Perverse games take place accompanied by classical music, in the shadow of a seemingly perfect, if not wealthy, family. In parallel, we are shown another family unit consisting of a grandmother, mother and daughter. They sell their car and look for work, in financial straits they have to pay the mortgage on their house that has been foreclosed.

Suddenly there is another backdrop, which sounds like the real one, but virtual. Animated by strange creatures to be killed with the complicity of another player, unknown in reality, but very close in acquaintance. During the game session, one communicates in another language, English, which emphasises the detachment of the virtual world from the Roman provinciality.

The motivational DVD is thrown in the bin, like so many things in metaphor. The generational difference is blatant and real.

In front of the product by Bernardo Carboni and Valerio Palusci, one can overlook the not always perfect interpretation, in front of a very well-done photography and simple, but profound and never banal dialogues.

The poetic juxtapositions of images and words give the feature film a non-negligible depth, especially for the topics it deals with, which should not leave us indifferent.

Looking for and being able to recognise who and what, in the midst of hell, is not hell, and making it last, and giving it space. The quotation to Calvino is textual and strong in the middle of the short film.

It is not very evident, but there is in the feature film a change in the format of the video between reality and virtual reality, which also becomes the format of the last scenes, with a precise meaning linked to the ending.

Culture is the red thread of the film: La traviata, Italo Calvino, Monet. Everywhere art is disseminated, salvific art, mirror art of the world of all time.

What is Cinderella, if not the symbol of our innermost dream of what we would like to be or have?

Worst film I have seen in my life, terrible camerawork, boring and flat characters, dull storyline and stupid scripts. The animation was a disaster and the actors gave me the ick. So baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad! And the grandmother was constantly talking about pigeons !!!!! It doesn't make any sense. I do no get the reference. I'd rather be with a fever than watching it again, they probably had a small budget but still I believe the bit more than they could chew and it looks trashy and cheap! The location of the film is supposed to be Rome but it doesn't translate to the screen and the film is overall confusing. I laughed instead of being invested in it.