Margins

Niccolò Falsetti's 2022 Italian film begins in the summer of 2008, when three friends in Grosseto lose the chance to share a stage with the hardcore punk band they idolise. With the gig cancelled, the trio decide to bring the band to their own town; the problem is that the town has nowhere to hold a concert and nobody wants one. The film's subject is not music but the provinces: the bureaucratic and social cost of trying to do anything far from the centre. Falsetti tells it in a tone that mocks without belittling; punk here is less a claim of identity than a form of stubbornness. The naturalness among the actors is well built. The shape of the story is predictable and the ending arrives where you expect. Who it's for: viewers who like Italian independent comedy and stories about music scenes. Who it's not for: anyone wanting surprises, or kept at a distance by swearing and punk culture.