Europa Europa Film Festival 2022 Film Review - Amanda
“Maybe good things didn’t happen to me because I had no one to tell them to”
Writer-Director Carolina Cavalli’s debut Italian feature film Amanda follows the titular character (played by Netflix original Baby’s Benedetta Porcaroli) as she sets about aggressively re-befriending her long-lost childhood friend turned recluse Rebecca (Galatéa Bellugi). Whilst this is Cavalli’s first film she is no amateur; having won the 2018 Premio Solinas grant for a TV series, for her original comedy-drama series Mi Hanno Sputato nel Milkshake.
To be perfectly frank Amanda is not exactly the most likeable character. She’s an impulsive, entitled, indignant, 24-year-old who uses her wit as a sword against anyone foolish enough to engage in a disagreement with her. Yet beneath all that pent-up anger is a lonely girl desperate for human connection, and that’s what makes her so relatable. Cavalli sets Amanda apart from the beginning, whether it be by sitting by herself in the cinemas every Saturday night or standing alone outside the bathrooms at half-empty raves pretending to be waiting for a friend. Amanda is isolated to the point of asking horny strangers for life advice over Chatroulette and regularly talking to her phone that she’s programmed to call her ‘Sexy Mama’. At times it feels as if Amanda is actively trying to make people dislike her so that she won’t be hurt when they don’t.
This lack of connection is what drives her obsessive need to make Rebecca her best friend again, purely because they once played together as kids. A surefire way to avoid rejection yet again - after all, if Rebecca liked her 20 years ago, why wouldn’t she like her now? Similarly, her simplistic understanding of relationships deludes her into believing a boy she’s seen at a rave a few times is her boyfriend - after one conversation. It’s easy to write her off as a caricature of a human being - what with her crochet grandma knit and black combat boots she wears every single day - but underneath her quirks is a heavily neurodivergent-coded character just wanting to belong. To quote Amanda, “I know what it’s like to be alone in a place full of people who aren’t alone. It’s always been like that for me.”
Cavallo sets Amanda up in a world surrounded by opulence, representative of her familial wealth, but with peeling wallpapers and damp patches to show that Amanda does not truly belong. Amanda is privileged, she lives in a fully paid-for hotel and has no need to work as her parents provide her with everything, much to the chagrin of her older sister Marina (Margherita Maccapani Missoni). Her strained relationship with Marina is one of the most interesting in the film, the disconnect between the two of them being obvious from the beginning, as we watch a young Marina relaxing by the pool as Amanda nearly drowns. Their adult relationship seems to be forever tied back to their childhood, especially with Marina’s daughter Stella being heavily implied to be a young version of Amanda, something Marina is afraid of and desperate to ‘fix’ which Amanda views as an affront. This coupled with her past with Rebecca leaves Amanda stuck in her childhood years, as nodded to by the film poster of adult Amanda floating in the very pool she almost lost her life to as a child.
Amanda premiered at the 79th Venice Film Festival, an impressive feat for a first-time director, and well deserved. The tightly written script shines most in its absurdist rapid-fire comedic moments whilst the more serious moments are aided by Bendetto’s expressive face and well-placed silences. So if you enjoy Italian films with witty conversations, eccentric characters, and the ever-consuming nature of loneliness, then Amanda is the film for you.
3.5 out of 5 stars.
Amanda is screening at the Europa Europa Film Festival, running from the 16th of February to the 7th of March. For tickets and more info check out the festival website here.