Gomorrah (2008)

IMDb Listing
Matteo Garrone’s urban crime thriller won the Grand Prix (basically, second place) at Cannes in 2008. It’s a fine film, connecting film separate stories about the Camorra, an international crime syndicate operating out of Naples, Italy. At this point in film history, the interconnecting-stories gimmick seems somewhat played out, but Garrone thankfully resists the temptation to link the strands into a unifying narrative, preferring instead to expose the wide range of activities – from low-level drug dealing to the world of haute couture – under the influence of the Camorra. As with any film of this type, some of the story threads are more interesting than others, and anyone unfamiliar with the Camorra (as I was on first viewing) may wonder how all these things fit together. But it’s still the most compelling film of its type since City of God. 8/10