L’Immensità

Emanuele Crialese’s first film in 11 years is a personal portrait of two outsiders trying to escape the confines of their environment. Penelope Cruz commands the screen as Clara, an effusive but slightly manic mother raising three kids in 1970s Rome. She tries to make family life a party amid a loveless marriage while her eldest daughter, Adri, experiences gender dysphoria in an era where the term doesn’t really exist. Cruz conveys desperation under Clara’s playfulness as the character cries while applying makeup or mischievously slides beneath the table at a dinner party to frolic with her kids. Blending intimate scenes of family drama with surreal musical sequences and anchored by Cruz’s multilayered performance, L’Immensità is a tremendous return from a director whose work SFFILM has championed from the very beginning.