Mondocane

In the not-too-distant future, two boys dream of escaping the harsh reality of life in the city of Taranto, Italy, a toxic wasteland ruled by warring gangs, but their lifelong friendship soon gets put to the test when a gang leader named Hothead takes them under his wing.

Not to be confused with the infamous “snuff” film of a similar name, Mondocane is basically an Italian Dystopian Sci-Fi Oliver Twist set in a near-future coastal Italy, in a place that very much resembles the current reality of many places around the globe.

The main characters are a pair of orphans boys, street kids known as Strays, who scavenge the toxic ruins of the old city, beneath the shadows of a massive factory that belches out poison 24/7. Their goal is to join one of the local gangs that take in Strays, gives them a home, a family, and a gun, and then sets them loose on the idle wealthy, who live in walled compounds along clean and beautiful beaches, to rob and rape and pillage as they want, and then to bring back the spoils.

The local gang that does take them in is called The Ants—full of Artful Dodgers armed to the teeth, and led by a manipulative and mohawked Fagin—also gives them their names. One of the boys is named Mondocane for the horrific act he commits for his gang initiation that involves a pet store (Not shown on screen, thankfully), and the other boy is called Pisspants, due to the seizures he suffers from, a condition that is most likely the result of having to live in the very toxic environment that the Ants war over with the other local gangs.

For Pisspants, life with the The Ants is a dream come true, but for Mondocane, it’s a nightmare, and soon the two friends find themselves on opposite sides, with nothing but violence left between them.

This is a film about constant tragedy and massive wealth inequities, and like I said, the future it depicts isn’t so much a “day after tomorrow” fictional setting as it is a “happening right now” current reality. The kids are great. In fact, the whole cast really commits, which is awesome, but the script feels half-baked, making a couple of leaps story-wise, so that when a couple of thing happen, the reasons are never quite clear, and in the end, the whole thing just kind of frays and falls apart.

Mondocane is a very familiar and very predictable tale, with its dystopian setting being the only real new element to set it apart from other similar stories, and for me, the movie never goes hard enough into the wild promise of its John Carpenter/Albert Pyun-reminiscent world, so there’s not much reason here to bother tuning in.

Mondocane isn’t really bad in any particular way, but it’s also definitely not great in any way either.

Meh.