‘Italian Studies’ | Movie Review | Tribeca ’21

In ‘Italian Studies’ A writer loses her memory. Adrift in NYC, she connects with a group of teenagers – in conversations both real and imagined – and searches for a way home. Following a script loosely to keep an air of improvisation present, director Adam Leon attempts to blur the lines of story-based and documentary filmmaking in a film that may not be excelling at either.

This was filmed around the summer of the 2020 pandemic, the script finished, but actress Vanessa Kirby is given full control of where she wants to take the story. Her character is a novelist of short stories called ‘Italian Studies’ but once she loses her memory, kinda wanders around New York aimlessly until meeting some teenagers.

The story from there kinda meanders about, having moments that are filmed beautifully but not really meaningful to the story. We are placed into the feelings that Kirby’s character feels. A little lost, confused, and unsure when it will end.

Had there been more to this movie I would be singing a different tune, and I don’t think this was just an ‘Improv Movie’. There just doesn’t seem to be many directions given and enough richness in the story itself to justify being about to improvise scripted scenes.