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We see Alina walk into a Chelsea hardware store one afternoon, and then… well, that’s really all there is to it.
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That question is left unanswered (this is not a movie where someone’s memory loss is explained by a trip to the ER and some curious MRIs), but “Italian Studies” dekes back in time to show us when the amnesia started. In that light, it’s easy to appreciate her confusion when a teenage girl comes up to her and insists they know each other - that they hung out with a group of kids in New York one summer.
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We first meet Alina in a London recording studio where she wordlessly radiates the confidence of someone young and beautiful and in full command of themselves. If Leon’s earlier New York stories - particularly the breezy one-two punch of “Gimme the Loot” and “Tramps” - paved the way for the street-level realness that grounds his latest film, none of his plot-forward previous work predicted something this loopy or elusive. 'The Last of Us': Everything You Need to Know About HBO's AdaptationĮmmy Predictions: Best Actress in a Comedy Series - The Smart Money's on Smart 'Agnes' Review: Mickey Reece's Seriocomic Tale of Demonic Possession Will Restore Your Faith in Nunsploitation New Movies: Release Calendar for December 10, Plus Where to Watch the Latest Films From the negative image of that idea emerges a question many of us have been asking ourselves since “Italian Studies” wrapped: Is it possible to be anyone in isolation? In lieu of a linear narrative, Alina’s hazy trip down the rabbit-hole and back is largely held together by the vague sense that self-identity is shaped by the people we meet, and the places where we happen to meet them.
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Maybe they’re memories, or characters from the book of short stories that launched her career, or kernels of the novel she’s just starting to write in her head. She can’t tell if she remembers the world around her and the strangers she finds in it, or if she’s just imagining them. No one is wearing masks or social distancing in the heat of lower Manhattan on a summer afternoon, yet Leon’s heroine - a successful author played by Vanessa Kirby at a time just before people on the street would recognize her as one of the gutsiest actresses of her generation, or as anyone at all - is lost in a fugue state that vividly reflects the isolation and uncertainty of the last 18 months.Īlina Reynolds (Kirby) can’t tell if she’s in crisis, or if she’s just confused. A dreamy lark of a movie shot piecemeal between July 2018 and April of the following year, Adam Leon’s “ Italian Studies” may be set along (and expertly stolen from) the crowded sidewalks of London and New York, but it’s unmistakably suffused with the woozy dislocation and “we have to make something” life-force of a COVID film.