Reel Affirmations Review: Blessed Boys
'Blessed Boys,' from Italian director Silvia Brunelli, is tells a memorable story that combines romance and religion.
From the opening scene of a young girl resurrecting a pigeon that dive-bombed into a statue of Jesus’ Mother, it’s clear that Blessed Boys (★★★★☆, CRITIC’S PICK), from Italian director Silvia Brunelli, is about to tell a memorable story.
In a poor Naples neighborhood, Lino struggles to earn ends meet while dealing with a mentally ill mother and his younger sister, whose aforementioned pigeon miracle has made her a local celebrity. To de-stress, he plays soccer and parties with his best friend Mario, who quietly realizes his feelings for his childhood friend are something more.
Thus, Blessed Boys begins the beautiful balancing act it follows through the film, oscillating between the story of Lino’s struggles at home and Lino’s friendship with Mario. It tells these stories with almost effortless precision, but ultimately cannot connect its two major threads.
Lino’s struggles with his mother’s raising of his sister provide a wonderful jumping-off point, but becomes aimless as Lino’s relationship with Mario becomes romantically tense.
The film truly shines in its queerness, brilliantly acted by Francesco Pellegrino and Vincenzo Antonucci as Lino and Mario, respectively. Their chemistry is intoxicating, allowing small moments of longing in between the simplicities of their daily life to really shine.
The film truly becomes enchanting when it narrows its focus on the two, allowing the music and cinematography to come together to create some breathtaking moments.
The religious aspect of Blessed Boys, while entertaining, quickly loses its focus by only really giving Lino a reason to run off to Mario. While there are moments that eloquently illustrate the weight of religion on this Italian city with insightful observations, it doesn’t delve into it nearly as much as it needed to.
As the relationship becomes romantically tinged, the film soars. Many of the early scenes between the two are taut with longing and tension that makes you skip a breath.
As the two grow closer in the face of Lino’s family problems, Mario’s feelings intensify as the former turns to partying and random sex, including a threesome with Mario and an older woman, to get along with his pain. The tension between them is enticingly beautiful in the quiet scenes that highlight the actor’s phenomenal performances, making it harder to forgive the film when it loses that focus.
Although the religious aspect of Blessed Boys isn’t poorly done, it becomes distracting from how intoxicating the romantic tension between its leads creates. The scenes involving Lino and his sister are amazing early on, with the tension between him and his mentally ill mother adding some important motion to the story.
However, as Lino’s family’s focus shifts toward his “miracle child” sister, it falls too far away from the masterful romantic tension it crafts in the other half of its story.
The balancing act holds for the first two acts with only a few bumps, but stumbles in the end. The film’s climatic moments often end with emptiness or confusion, with the energy fizzling out as it loses focus.
While religion clearly influenced Blessed Boys, Brunelli never really has anything firm to say about it. If the story had shed its religious plotting earlier on, Lino’s story about a young man finding himself into adulthood would have aced the landing.
Blessed Boys screens at Landmark’s E Street Cinema on Saturday, Oct. 22, at 9:30 p.m. ($15 at the door), and is available in the virtual festival through Sunday, Oct. 23, at 11:59 p.m. Click here for details.
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