La Gioia (2025) is a popping blend of innocence and despair, an exploration of youth and (im)maturity and a kind gaze on the inevitable destinies of its marginalised characters. Nicolangelo Gelormini’s second fictional feature film was shown as part of Giornate degli autori at the 82nd Venice Film Festival.
It’s an exciting opening, almost like a one-minute short enough on its own, as frumpily dressed Gioia struggles to adjust the rooftop satellite dish in order to watch a Juventus match with her elderly parents. The cutting is electrifying, the characters hilarious. On the other side of Gioia’s infantilised existence is Alessio, a teenage student in her school who was forced to experience a world well beyond his age. He is a prostitute for his pimp/customer ‘uncle’ and he cannot resist the responsibility to care for his self-absorbed mother.
A chance interaction between the two deploys Alessio’s well rehearsed instinct to see how much he can milk her for. In a childlike Gioia their French lessons and then dating and future plans evokes daring to dream that she might not have allowed herself otherwise. Alessio is also ambiguous in his emotions as he realises for the first time what it’s like to be cared for with honesty. However, none can escape who they are nor their tragic fates.
The unrecognisable Valeria Golino’s warmth shines behind Gioia’s large glasses, permed hair and frumpy, gaudy sweaters and she manages to make this ridiculous woman-child into an entertaining, believable character. Jasmine Trinca and Saul Nanni are more subdued in their performance as mother and son, while Francesco Colella as the family ‘uncle’ becomes more and more threatening as the story progresses, resembling a living, breathing vampire.
Nicolangelo Gelormini, a former assistant to Sorrentino, utilises his professional cast to add meat to his farce so that by the end you want to believe that Alessio is really in love with Gioia and that they might make a better life for themselves. The director chooses unusual poses for his protagonists that are sometimes humorous and other times make you question the reality you’re in. How else would you describe Alessio sitting in a tree like a vampire from Twilight as Gioia approaches him? Could a serious Italian director really be paying homage to Twilight? Oh yes, he could and with good reason that pays off in the end.
Coming out of La Gioia is like coming out of a dream that gets darker and darker as you keep analysing it even though you thought you were having a good time. Suddenly, not moved by the beats of the music or confused by the jump-cuts, you realise you should have perhaps been more appalled at this teacher-student affair, that you should have been more disgusted by Alessio’s nightlife and that jail might be too lenient for his mom and ‘uncle’. But Gelormini stays on the right side of comedy and pathos because of his compassion to his characters as well as conviction in the story he is trying to tell.
Our team is on the ground in Italy to cover the 82nd Venice International Film Festival, running from 27 August to 6 September 2025.
