I Can Quit Whenever I Want 3: Ad Honorem

The last film of Sydney Sibilia's trilogy. The first came out in 2014; the second and third opened back to back in 2017. The premise comes from a real Italian problem: researchers with doctorates, good in their fields, who cannot find a university post and end up working at petrol stations or washing dishes. In the first film this group used their expertise to manufacture a synthetic drug. Here they are taken out of prison and forced to work for the state, and the series moves from the chemistry lab into the shape of a heist film. What made the trilogy land so hard in Italy is less the comedy than the diagnosis: how research funding is distributed and how qualified people end up unemployed is the actual subject under the jokes. It took 2.5 million euros in Italy. Local critics were divided; some call the trilogy a small classic, others found the ending weak. Not the place to start for anyone who has not seen the series; begin with the first film.