La Main de Dieu

The best Sorrentino in years, probably since The Consequences of Love. Finally shaking off the chubby Roman pathos of The Great Beauty and the masturbatory excesses of Youth, he serves up his unmistakable Napoleonic diet poetic style. The fewer great words that are spoken, the greater things that God's hand touches. The more modest the images here, the more moving they are. The first half is a crackling family comedy with many memorable moments, whilst the second half is a much heavier drama about the impossibility of accepting the loss of loved ones and film as a refuge where we find shreds of lost happiness. Life is sometimes like a cruise to a party island, but where everyone has already gone to sleep... The Maradona of European cinema scores a good one. (2022-01-04)

The Hand of God is a more understated and less extravagant film compared to The Great Beauty or Youth, but it’s still pure Sorrentino, with stunning cinematography and a deep sense of nostalgia for the 1980s. It’s a love letter to Naples, to football, to Maradona, and to the legendary filmmakers of that era. But it’s also about childhood, love, and family — captured beautifully and with the subtlety that only Paolo Sorrentino can deliver. (2021-12-31)

The autobiographical story of a young Sorrentino? A nice film about growing up and the effect that a terrible family tragedy has on a young man’s adolescence. In the first half, even the quarrels and friction between the characters are lightened with typical Italian humour and the film is a likable view into a Neapolitan banker's family with funny characters and moments. The second half aptly depicts the emptiness and fumbling of a teenager who has had independence thrust upon him, without the support and love of his parents. Sorrentino with a clearly comprehensible story, without metaphorical embellishments or visual eccentricities. But also with a generally well-worn story. (2024-06-05)