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★
Directed by: Ivan Brusa
Written by: Ivan Brusa and Francesco Carra
Cast: Michela Maridati, Roberta Nicosia and Selene Feltrin
Films that fall under the Independent Cinema label deserve to be given credit just for getting made, given the amount of time and effort it takes to make a film. However, they still deserve to be treated like any other film. I respect director Ivan Brusa for being able to pull this movie off, given the low budget he clearly had, but since he chose to give it a somewhat legitimate release through Amazon Prime, it is worth judging on its own merits. Unfortunately, as a film, No Vendetta No Party is a failure.
The story revolves around Eleonora Bianchi (Michela Maridati) who works with other people to kidnap and murder YouTubers and Celebrities. Her father Mario (Paolo Riva) is then kidnapped by Ambra Di Dio (Roberta Nicosia) and Raphaelle (Selene Feltrin), who threaten to kill him and desire to trade with Eleonora’s latest intended victim, Social Media sensation Dindirindina (Nunzia Raia), resulting in a conflict that will involve more people and more murder.
Script-wise, No Vendetta No Party is undone by a lack of any compelling characters. Every character in this film is either one-dimensional or deliberately unlikeable or both, with even the attempt at humanising Eleonora through her relationship with her father not working because barely any time is devoted to it at all. As a result, there is no investment in the story. The narrative takes over 20 minutes to get going and once it does, it becomes a series of plotting/death scenes that are not compelling because of the investment issue. Then there is an overlong epilogue that adds a surprising yet overcomplicated reveal, feeling like it was added just for the sake of a twist and to extend the runtime to feature-length.
Satirically, this film is a big missed opportunity, because it has absolutely nothing to say about the subject matter of Youtubers and other forms of vapid Celebrity Culture. All it does is simply point them out and have characters that represent them die, so it makes one wonder why it was there at all. No laughs are had, and the dialogue is not witty or clever enough to make up for the lack of thematic insight.
But the worst aspect by far is the direction. It is respectable that Ivan Brusa tried to be ambitious and stylised with his direction, but when combined with the low-production values, it becomes exhausting to sit through. Putting aside the ugly looking cinematography, the camerawork and editing are both overdone, with constant Dutch angles (much worse than Showdown’s usage of them) and speeded up footage, along with terrible looking screen effects. The musical score also feels like it is comprised of royalty-free tracks, with the result feeling like a feature length YouTube skit more than a film. Acting-wise, no one is especially awful, but they do all feel like amateur performers rather than competent ones.
No Vendetta No Party may show a bit of promise that its director could work on continuing, but otherwise it is an annoying and poorly executed piece of emptiness that is just a boring experience. It may be available for free, but it is a waste of time.
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