3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): My Name is Vendetta

2022, Cosimo Gomez (Ugly Nasty People) -- Netflix

Or Il mio nome è vendetta.

Was in the mood for a revenge flick, so clicked Add to My List on a few from other countries. This one is from Italy.

It would be nice if more of these movies decided to establish some style, instead of just watching a few dozen of the better know examples of the sub-genre and doing a low-res copy & paste. Everyone wants to be the next Taken or John Wick but most are pale imitations. Giving the young girl a haircut straight out of Leon does not make this a Luc Besson movie -- leave him to his own terrible movies.

That is my way of saying that the movie is not very good, not very innovative, just a serviceable example of the revenge/retribution genre but from Italy. But I have been thinking about the act of creation, and once again going back to Kent's comment about intent. All the choices here are definitely intentional, they are just not very... thought through far enough. But, I think, that's OK? I create: I write here, I write spontaneous flash fiction in my notebooks, I take photos with a higher end point & shoot and post them to my decades old blog site. And in all, I call myself tenaciously amateur. I am willing to create, but only willing to invest so much into it. I don't expect myself to excel, so I don't really try. And that's OK. The act of creation is what I am doing, for myself, and occasionally, like you five fine folks, for an audience. So, the writers and directors of these middling movies are... doing this as well? Sure, there is a business and lots of meddling Purple Suits in this mix, but sometimes I think the creatives behind the movie are still doing their best with what they are given, and the act is worthy unto itself. A lot of people get to do their thing when a movie is made, even a bad one. And that's more than OK.

Uh, so what about THIS movie?

So yeah, the movie.

Santo (Alessandro Gassmann, Transporter 2) lives in the woods in northern Italy with his wife & daughter, and his beard. They are in an isolated area but not off the grid. But Santo has secrets, which are revealed when his daughter Sofia (Ginevra Francesconi, Regina), celebrating a day with him after a win at hockey, snaps his pic (something he always forbids) and posts it online. Within hours, their house is broken into, Santo's wife and her brother, are murdered and Santo & Sofia are on the run.

Santo was a thug for a mafia. He killed a mafia Don's brother. Then he met a girl and ran away, to mend his ways, and his soul. But now that he has been revealed, and they have taken his wife from him, he will end things.... finally, and permanently. 

This one is by the books, paint by numbers, a text book example of how these movies go, cookie cutter. There are things about running on rails plot that bother me, for example, when the Good Guy breaks into the Boss's mansion, why is it always so... easy? Sure, there are always the requisite number of goons in the way, to be shot, strangled or blown up, but eventually he finds the Boss just sitting there. But sure, that is what I have been saying... there is just enough effort, and part of it requires giving the audience what they expect, what the genres have told them they want to see, the easily digestible template. And that's OK.

Santo was a solid (literally, for a man over 50) lead character, rough and tough looking, especially after doffing the beard and hair for the serviceable shaved-down look. He is capable but not a Wick-ian superhero. His daughter has to run the gamut from idyllic life, to denial and rage, to final acceptance and... well, as we know how these go, to sequel-ish revenge.