Italian Studies
Magnolia Pictures | Release Date: January 14, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
2
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
83
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJan 11, 2022
The wistful feelings it generates about a world allowed to keep moving coexist alongside an uneasy evocation of brain fog, an easy stand-in for either a zombified endemic state or a specific long-COVID symptom—take your pick. Whatever the original motivation, Leon appears to sense, after a couple of sweet slice-of-life capers, that you can’t keep walking and talking forever. Read full review
83
The PlaylistNick AllenJun 18, 2021
Italian Studies is a striking mix of open-hearted storytelling and atmospheric filmmaking, with an overall confidence from Leon and Kirby that’s more pronounced than the script’s slippery nature. Read full review
82
Paste MagazineAndrew CrumpJan 12, 2022
It’s an odd sort of travelogue Leon and Kirby curate here, but Italian Studies’ drifting, artsy peculiarities make 70 minutes fly by with a palliative affection—for Alina, for New York and for all the intersecting stories contained within its bounds. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearJan 13, 2022
For a long stretch, Italian Studies turns this trip down memory-loss lane into a low-wattage livewire, an unpredictable stroll into the unknown. Its hero will slowly, eventually come back around to remembering her life before the reset. The movie itself, however, is unforgettable from the jump. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshJan 13, 2022
Italian Studies is a unique curio of a film, a free sketch of time and place melting into a singular subjective experience that asks “does memory matter?” Read full review
70
Screen DailyWendy IdeJun 18, 2021
The barrier between the real and the fictional encounters is increasingly permeable, as is the line between social norms and unacceptable behaviour, in this freewheeling, spontaneous voyage into the unknown. Read full review
70
Film ThreatAlex SavelievJun 18, 2021
While it may raise more questions than answers and not quite cohere as a whole, the film nevertheless is poetic and at times breathtakingly beautiful, anchored by a superb cast. Read full review
67
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJun 18, 2021
This is a film about an artist who forgets herself, made by an artist trying to do the same, and with the help of an actress looking for an anchor of truth to hold onto right when the tides of stardom are threatening to pull her out to sea. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comCarlos AguilarJan 14, 2022
Frustrating in its repetitiveness, Leon’s third feature is like a narrative exercise fascinated by both memory and youth. Italian Studies relentlessly experiments with form, but fails to fully congeal. Read full review
58
The Film StageMichael FrankJun 18, 2021
Italian Studies disorients the viewer for an experience that has moments of singularity, though it can’t hide from its disjointed nature. But it’s different, and that has definitive value. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineChris BarsantiJan 10, 2022
During an amnesiac’s atmospheric nighttime ramble through Manhattan, the seeds of a narrative are sewn but never nurtured. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJan 18, 2022
None of it adds up to much of a movie. Italian Studies is more an experimental collection of filmed conversations, filmed docu-drama style, interspersed with clips of a gorgeous blonde wandering New York. But because it stars Vanessa Kirby… Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJun 18, 2021
The film trades the agreeably limber storytelling and seeming spontaneity of Leon’s previous work for a narrative both aimless and inert. Read full review
30
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiJun 18, 2021
Leon imbues the film with an uncertain sense of dread, but he doesn’t lead the story or its protagonist anywhere worthwhile. It’s as though the narrative was designed specifically to capture the feeling of being lost in the city and what that might do to someone, but there’s very little exploration of Alina’s interiority for it to be satisfying. Read full review
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