‘Italian Studies’ Review: Alone in New York with Amnesia


With the first two features, “Give Me the Booty” (2013) and “The Vagrants” (2017), writer-director Adam Leon has carved out an admirable niche as a chronicler of unsupervised and sometimes helpless urban youth. His last painting is stretching a bit for “Italian Studies” and yields mixed results.

The movie begins in London, where Alina (Vanessa Kirby), a little more stylish and a few degrees more arrogant than the teenagers, goes to a party/recording session. He lights a cigarette from a young American woman who asks if they’ve met outside before.

Alina says no, but the young woman and the movie say otherwise. A flashback shows Alina suddenly suffering from amnesia while at a hardware store in Manhattan’s Chinatown. Leaving her purse and small dog, she wanders around with a small goal or purpose. He soon finds himself stalking a group of, yes, urban teenagers.

At one point in this episode, a fan approaches Alina because she is the author of an acclaimed collection of short stories called “Italian Studies”. Alina goes to a library to verify this. There he signs his own book. Doing so instead of using his invention to find where it should be may confuse some viewers.

However, “Italian Studies” is not a realistic story, despite its often documentary-style location shots. The idea of ​​time, like the idea of ​​form, is multidimensional. Parts of the movie feature heady interviews with the characters, or perhaps the actors who play them. It’s hard to be sure. If the movie sometimes sounds like “Famous British Actress Vanessa Kirby Is Going Into A Man Leon Movie,” that might be totally intentional.

Italian Studies
Not rated. Working time: 1 hour 21 minutes. In theaters and can be rented or purchased Amazon, apple tv and other streaming platforms and pay-TV operators.



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