The tear gas (Netflix), directed by Alessandro Genovesi, is an adaptation of lacrime maker by novelist Erin Doom, a bestseller that swept the Italian version of #BookTok in 2022. The orphanage where Nica and Rigel grew up was a brutal place, a place full of fairy tale images that children used to try to resist their emotional and physical traumas. While they have been at odds all their lives, but also powerfully attracted to each other, Nica and Rigel must take into account their upbringing and their inpidual feelings when they are adopted by a couple as teenagers. Prepare for a lot of longing glances, musings in front of pianos, and desperate searches for the traditional parts of a fairy tale that will hopefully eventually hold together. “The wolf in the story may seem evil, but he is not always evil…”
THE TEAR: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The essence: When her parents died in a car accident, Nica (Caterina Ferioli) was sent to Sunnycreek Home, which all the children called “Grave.” She had a friend there, the loyal Adeline (Eco Andriolo). But the orphans knew their souls were being suffocated in that facility, with its cold marble domes, spare bedrooms, and mysterious torture chambers. And Margaret (Sabrina Paravicini), her cruel director, only reserved her love for Rigel (Simone Baldasseroni), the boy she had named after a star. After years of being ignored, Nica was finally adopted by a couple who recently lost their own child. And when they heard her beautiful piano playing, Anna (Roberta Rovelli) and Norman (Orlando Cinque) were inspired to adopt Rigel too.
Now on the fast track to officially becoming siblings, Nica and Rigel attend Barnaby High School, where she quickly befriends Billie (Nicky Passarella) and Miki (Sveva Romana Candelletta) while he strikes tortured pretty-guy poses while fighting. with Lionel (Alessandro). Bedetti), who is sweet to Nica. In flashbacks to her time at the orphanage, we also glimpse how Rigel was medicated for fevers and severe headaches, and Margaret tied Nica to a stretcher for the slightest infraction. “Don’t touch me,” she says now to her, in her adjacent rooms at Anna and Norman’s house. “Are you brave enough to imagine a fairy tale without a wolf?” But Nica has always noticed something about Rigel, even if he doesn’t admit it. “Maybe there was something more than anger and pain,” she muses in voiceover. “Maybe there was light in it too.”
Cue many prolonged periods of staring into each other’s eyes. When her condition causes him to have an attack, she puts him to bed and comforts him, which leads to petting him. And although both Rigel and Nica know that their experiences with Margaret in Grave broke something inside them, they don’t want to face that trauma. Instead, Nica would accept her new family dynamic with Anna and Norman, while Rigel just wants to be close to her, even if he won’t admit it. When Nica’s old friend Adeline arrives with news of the plan to press abuse charges against Margaret, it inspires Nica to come forward. The scars Grave inflicted on him are long-lasting. But what her director did to Rigel is worse. If the incarnation of evil loved only him, how can he be loved or give love?
What movies will it remind you of? The wolves in The Tearsmith are only metaphorical. But the forbidden but latent romance between Nica and Rigel is straight out of the dramas of the Twilight saga.
Performance worth seeing: Caterina Ferioli carries most of The tear gas, giving Nica a growing sense of confidence that she can explore as she processes the traumas of her childhood. But Nicky Passarella and especially Sveva Romana Candelletta are also very good here as Nica’s friends Billie and Miki, respectively, even if their own budding romance is only hinted at before being forgotten entirely.
Memorable dialogue: “Yes, it’s true. They were broken. We’re not like everyone else. Maybe we broke into a thousand pieces to fit in better.” In a romance, this is the kind of thing someone will say right away. But Ferioli, along with Simone Baldasseroni as Rigel, at least they have enough chemistry to sell it.
Sex and skin: Some caresses and kisses on the ears and, finally, no shirt; Additionally, Nica experiences a brief moment of unwanted physical aggression.
Our opinion: The novel in which The tear gas Its headquarters were apparently set in Alabama, which could explain the film’s reliance on American vehicles of the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the fact that Nica’s adoptive parents seemed to emulate the styles of dress and household chores. Americans. But the actual setting of the film is unnamed, all the dialogue is in Italian, the orphanage that appears in the flashbacks has an opulence that seems very baroque, and the scenes that take place in a high school building or a hospital are based on nearby scenes. Oops and soft lighting to hide her location. All of this makes it really difficult to fully immerse yourself in the love story between Nica and Rigel. As for chemistry, Caterina Ferioli and Simone Baldasseroni have their moments, to the extent that frustrated lovers trying to find their purpose together certainly can. It is very possible to support them. But the setting as it is portrayed in the film takes us very far from the immediate story, and above all prevents romance, which sometimes occurs between two young people who have technically been adopted as brothers, with the doors open in a house owned by a couple who are technically now his parents. The tear gas It never really addresses the potential disgusting nature of this, beyond a jealous kid at school attacking Rigel. Perhaps this theme found fuller expression in the novel, but in the film it can’t align with the overblown riffs on fairy tales, wolves, and innocent damsels.
Our call: In The tear gas, there are fleeting moments of real chemistry between our young romance lovers. It is a very slow process! And painful glances in the direction of your crush! But there’s also the lasting trauma of emotional and physical abuse in childhood, shared with your true love because, although you were once orphans, have you been adopted together? Unfortunately, some of the pieces in The tear gas They don’t really fit together, and that will make it a SKIP IT for some audiences.
Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is a freelance writer and editor living in Chicago. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.
