Reality, directed by Matteo Garrone
Though it won the runner-up Grand Prize at Cannes this year, Italian director Matteo Garrone's follow-up to his Naples crime drama, Gomorrah, was generally rated a disappointment by the critics. This comedy-drama follows charming, ambitious Italian fish vendor Luciano (Aniello Arena) who becomes progressively more deluded while awaiting his chance to appear on the Italian version of Big Brother. The unsubtle theme about the quasi-religious nature of celebrity worship lacks any real satirical bite, spinning its wheels with too many scenes of the deluded Luciano and his sprawling family.
At VIFF: Oct. 5, 1 p.m., Granville 7; Oct. 8, 6:45 p.m., Granville 7; Oct. 10, 10:30 a.m., Granville 7
At TIFF: Sept. 12, 6:45 p.m., TIFF Bell Lightbox; Sept. 13, 9:30 p.m., Scotiabank