Piranhas (2019)

When a group of young opportunistic thieves rob a jewellers of it's luxury watches, they attract the attention of the local protection racket who make it quite clear that their rogue actions won't be tolerated. Quite intuitively, though, their charismatic leader "Nicola" (Francesco Di Napoli) suggests that their moped-mobility might make them useful in their narcotics distribution business. That makes some sense to the mob, so pretty swiftly the boys are making a decent living supplying parts of Naples with their hash. Galvanised by their success, they decide that it is time to up their game a bit and so approach "Don Vittorio" (Renato Carpentieri). He's the local kingpin but is so heavily monitored by the carabinieri that his business interests are starting to suffer a little. How about he arms this little squadron with some AK47s and lets them drive his competitors into the Mediterranean? The old gent sees some merit in this, and now we find ourselves with an area of the city patrolled by little better than armed bandits who are, of course, starting to earn the enmity of others too! The adrenalin-junkie lads accept this risk, but for "Nicola", he must also consider the wellbeing of girlfriend "Letizia" (Viviana Aprea) whom, ostensibly, this is all for! There is something quite convincing about the narrative here, and not just an Neapolitan one other. It illustrates just how a lack of opportunity can drive people to seek other opportunities, to compromise what little standards they might already have and to become every bit as bad as those who "governed" their own upbringing - all amidst an environment of unbreakable fraternity. I gather none of these lads are professional actors, and that shows with a certain edginess from a Di Napoli who leads an ensemble of entirely plausible and naive chavvy-thugs into a cul-de-sac of immediacy and violence all while his increasingly more distressed mother (a powerful effort from Valentina Vannino) struggles to exert any sort of control over her wayward but not evil child. It doesn't hang about and most of the camera work is up close and personal delivering something that's potentially quite insightful, and this is actually quite a touching film in it's way.