Whatever you think of The Hand of God, said Adam White in The Independent, “you’ll be Googling one-way tickets to Naples by the end of it”. The film matches the “dazzling maximalism” of Paolo Sorrentino’s 2014 Oscar-winning triumph, The Great Beauty, but this time we are not in Rome, but in the sun-drenched Naples of the writer-director’s childhood. It is the 1980s, and the city is “gripped with Diego Maradona fever”. Filippo Scotti – “think Timothée Chalamet with a bowl of spaghetti” – plays Sorrentino’s alter ego, Fabietto, a teenage boy who is “abuzz with excitement” at the prospect of the Argentine footballer transferring to his home city. But halfway through the film, Fabietto is struck by a “surreal tragedy” that sets him on a dark new path.
This sprawling film doesn’t so much unfold as “spill out”, said Tom Shone in The Sunday Times. Sorrentino piles the screen with melodrama – “there’s a beating, a mistress, a shocking death” – and though the film is “never boring”, it all feels rather thin. “I’m glad that Sorrentino has got this film out of his system,” said Xan Brooks in The Guardian. This “fevered coming-of-age tale” is raw, full of vigour and spiced with “delicious” set pieces; Sorrentino has clearly immersed himself in the milieu “like a pubescent Proust, to the point where we can almost smell the aftershave and tobacco”. Yet the director might be just too close to the material – at times his account of adolescence feels adolescent itself, “full of garish caricatures and crude sexual politics”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Denmark’s record-setting arms purchase raises eyebrows and anxietyIN THE SPOTLIGHT By eschewing American-made munitions for their European counterparts, the Danish government is bracing for Russian antagonism and sending a message to the West
-
Is hate speech still protected speech?Talking Points Pam Bondi’s threat to target hate speech raises concerns
-
‘Mental health care is health care’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
A tour of Sri Lanka’s beautiful northThe Week Recommends ‘Less frenetic’ than the south, this region is full of beautiful wildlife, historical sites and resorts
-
Giorgio Armani obituary: designer revolutionised the business of fashionIn the Spotlight ‘King Giorgio’ came from humble beginnings to become a titan of the fashion industry and redefine 20th century clothing
-
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale – a ‘comfort’ watch for fansThe Week Recommends The final film of the franchise gives viewers a chance to say goodbye
-
The Paper: new show, same 'warmth and goofiness'The Week Recommends This spin-off of the American version of The Office is ‘comfortingly and wearyingly familiar’
-
Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons – ‘riotously colourful’ works from an ‘exhilarating’ painterThe Week Recommends The 34-year-old is the first artist to take over Dulwich Picture Gallery’s main space
-
Born With Teeth: ‘mischievously provocative’ play starring Ncuti GatwaThe Week Recommends ‘Sprightly’ production from Liz Duffy Adams imagines the relationship between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe
-
Art review: Lorna Simpson: Source NotesFeature Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, through Nov. 2
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
