Direction: Carolina Cavalli
Country: Italy
The surefooted direction by debutant Carolina Cavalli in Amanda - an off-kilter comedy with wealthy, borderline teenagers at the center - couldn’t have had a more adequate performance by Benedetta Porcaroli, a name to look for in the future.
Carrying large amounts of irony and sarcasm, the film follows the whimsical 24-year-old title character (Porcaroli), whose permissive mother (Monica Nappo), the wealthy owner of a pharmaceutical chain, allows her to slack 24/7. Amanda lives disgusted and obsessed with not having friends. Struggling with ennui and desperately craving connections, she gets to the point of inviting her mother’s maid to join her at almost-empty rave parties.
Her miserable existence gains purpose when she realizes that a once-close childhood friend, Rebecca (Galatéa Bellugi), is more lonely and depressive than she is, and never leaves her room. With an unyielding tenacity, Amanda’s new mission is to drag her up from the bottom she hit a long time ago.
Vapid at times, and with a deft camerawork refusing to cope with the story's confined temperament, the film is full of artifice to the point of absurdity. But that may just be the point of Cavalli, who keeps the humor, the drama and, let's face it, the goofy undertones that make this portrait of Italian bourgeoisie more derisive. Amanda is never less than provocative as its foolish characters challenge one another in strange modes.
