House of Gucci

Ridley Scott's second biopic this year, this time from a more recent history than The Last Duel, had to compensate for the foregone conclusion through the acting and technical execution, which he thankfully managed to do quite well in most cases. The screen brings together acting aces of both the older and younger generations, and although their English-Italian comes across as a little dodgy at times, they give quality performances. The audio-visual execution is good, which is not surprising in a film by Scott. Although I’ve rated both films with four stars, I found The Last Duel more impressive. House of Gucci gets minus points for an unnecessarily long running time and the death of Maurizio, which was a bit too much for my taste, but it's still a solid biographical drama. (2021-12-10)

It's at once so insanely overwrought and yet so cheap and fragmented that it's reminiscent of a sulkfest in which the creative team lost funding for a project, but still decided to finish it with the help of two hundred and fifty Spanish investors folding themselves into a straw man. This also gives me some uncontrollable sympathy for the film, because (probably wrongly) it feels somehow "resilient". If it weren't for the swift Last Duel, one might even offer to mention that directors in their 80s simply lose a certain visual sense out of complacency (see Wajda, Polanski, Bellochio, or Konchalovsky), such that a film that's called freaking House of Gucci lacks above all else style and elegance. And yet it's helmed by a director who, when he devoted a two-second shot to the seated emeritus mobsters during one court scene in American Gangster, just from their body position, clothing, and layout in the shot screamed that these gentlemen mean business. Here, it's like every once in a while no one really knows what to do, so they deal with it in their own way. Jared Leto, whom no one told he wasn't in a Bruno Dumont film, Lady Gaga aiming for the Proudfoot from Bag End Award (presented at Bilbo's 111th birthday), and the writers ticking off the necessary scenes in a high society life story (crying a single tear, a drunk wife terrorizing her husband, the husband slamming her against the wall). As a result, the film feels oddly artificial (thanks in part to the ugly digital camera) and almost everything in it feels like it's happening for applause. However, you can really see some effort, commitment and directorial ideas, but it all feels oddly disjointed and staged. (2022-02-22)

This movie balances right on that line between three and four stars at this point. I was entertained by the entire one-hundred and sixty-four minutes of millionaire chess and backstabbing, plus it introduced a story I had no idea about before, and the ensemble cast is absolutely amazing, no question about it. I enjoyed the scenes with Irons, Leto, and Pacino the most (the latter, in particular, steals the show a lot, and I am glad he got so much screen time). I was slightly distracted by the variance in Italian accents with the actors (Driver, Irons, and Pacino were restrained X Gaga’s and Leto’s was totally extravagantly over the top). I found the movie a little disappointing because Ridley Scott had so much room to tell the overall story evenly in the space of two and a half hours. Despite that, he spent more time on some of the less crucial parts, which made the ending feel rushed by comparison. Therefore, the way the final scene is connected to what precedes it lacks any convincing explanation of how it came about and where the participants went wrong. Too bad, I found it all very interesting otherwise. (2021-11-26)

While I did expect something a bit better, still I can't help rating the second Ridley Scott film this year with anything other than a high score. Essentially, it's a brilliant conversation film with a slight thriller edge that benefits from a mega-awesome cast and the firm hand of one of the greatest contemporary directing legends. It's a really great 4-star film that’s only lacking some ultra-powerful moment to sway me towards that fifth one. However, the storytelling style, the fatefulness, and the incredible stylishness (represented by the ubiquitous extravagance) make this saga about the Gucci family one of the best I've seen this year. (2021-11-25)

A superficial ride on the cheap tinsel of fashion mafiosi, which wallows in its own pompous chauvinism, but never once gets under your skin. Scott is a great man. For one hundred and fifty minutes he blows out the candles on a birthday cake sovereignly like Aldo, and you'll even forgive the shortness of breath. But when it's all over, you'll feel a little disappointed that a showrunner who wasn't afraid to push the characters through something deeper for eight up to ten hours didn’t take up the mantle. (2022-11-22)