5/20/15

Short Skin

Yikes! This is exactly what I was afraid it would be! And they made a MOVIE about it!

"Short Skin: I dolori del giovane Edo" (English captions) was submitted to the 2015 Seattle International Film Festival from Italy. As as I feared, this comedy (?) addresses the misadventures of an unfortunate young man who has... you guessed it! (It's called phimosis, a malformation that makes an erection painful, correctable with circumcision.) The SIFF catalog calls this a "coming-of-age delight."

Written (with a host of other writers) and directed by award-winning Duccio Chiarini (Special Mention - Venice Film Festival), we watch the trials and tribulations of our young hero and his chum as they both strive to lose their virginity over summer vacation.

We see:
  • Matteo Creatini as Edoardo, our skinny, gawky hero in a Powell's Book Store t-shirt (it's in Portland, Oregon!), who is in a tight spot.
  • Franscesca Agostini as Bianca, Edoardo's long-time girlfriend.
  • Nicola Nocchi as Arturo, is so obsessed with losing HIS virginity, he's willing to pay. He wonders if Jesus was circumcised. (Of course he was, being Jewish and all.)
  • Marian Raschilla is Elizabetta the new girl in town.
  • Bianca Seravolo is Olivia, our hero's wacky younger sister who is audacious, adventuresome and eager to see her dog find a mate.
I am deliberately NOT mentioning the octopus, the parents' rift, the chum's advice about the fairer sex or the prostitute. Of course when a movie is about two teenagers burdened by their mutual virginity, it's an easy laugh. My only problem was that the solution was staring him in the face all along (he Googled it) and I couldn't understand everyone's hesitation. Is is cultural?

Oh well...