Italian Race

Italian Race (2016) is billed as a racing film. It is really about a brother and sister. Giulia is a rising GT driver. Her brother Loris was better than her once and is now an addict with his career behind him. Their father raced too. The film works on the pressure between the three of them. The racing is shot differently from most of the genre. The camera spends much of its time inside the car and the director builds speed through sound and tight framing rather than cutting. Matilda De Angelis is in her first film here and it launched her. The real strength is Stefano Accorsi as the brother. The part could have been pitiful. The film refuses him that comfort and leaves him both infuriating and likeable at the same time. It runs 119 minutes and drifts into melodrama near the end. Good for: motorsport, Italian cinema, and sibling stories. You do not need to care about racing, since the film barely lives on the track. Less good for: there is drug addiction and a crash sequence. Anyone wanting authentic race engineering detail will not find it here.