Wordiezett So much average

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

secondtake Days and Clouds (2007)Tender, true, and rather moving without being the slightest bit sentimental. This is a look at normal life, in a way, in modern Northern Italy (the setting is Genoa). A fairly comfortable middle aged couple is going through a crisis as one loses a job and the money crunch adds to other everyday stresses.And that's it. Which is a lot when you realize that that's it. There will be no murder or shocking accidents, no illness or surprise turn of events of any kind, really. Which is why it draws you further and further, gently, with more humor than pathos, until you really believe these people, or these kind of people, exist quite like this. It's not a random slice of life, since there is certainly a core problem being scrutinized (the loss of a job in mid-life, etc.). But in many ways the little events are so "little" in the cinematic sense they are just a small pageant for the viewer.So what makes it sing beyond the compelling, restrained story is the acting, above all the acting. The couple, the husband and wife facing the crisis, makes sense because the woman (Margherita Buy) and the man (Antonio Albanese) are so perfect at being imperfect. They don't push their crisis too hard, nor do that have the ideal love at the beginning. What they show is the normal troubled tenderness and awkward anger of getting into such a situation.Besides a second thread following somewhat their daughter's life, which has taken a less materialistic turn then the parents, the movie adds a whole other element throughout--early Renaissance art. The mother happens to have just finished (belatedly) her graduate degree in Italian art from the 1400s. And she is helping restore an obscure small ceiling painting somewhere else in town, seeing it gradually reveal itself as the movie progresses. The reason this matters is it adds an element of beauty and idealism that is implied by the whole rest of the movie. That we (all of us) are not simply here to make ends meet and worry about money. And this something bigger (call it art, call it something spiritual inspired by art or inspiring art) is what holds us up at times.So by the end the two aspects--the mundane and the ethereal--meld, every so softly. Quite beautiful.

saldrovandi1 After three movies that elevated him from d'essai circuits in terms of box office results, director Silvio Soldini returns to more dramatic and current themes closer to his debuts. Middle-class families can't afford financial problems, that's seems to be the sense of the movie. Step after step all certainties and habits of a Genova's well off family, crawl down after Michele (Antonio Albanese) lost his work. Soldini as always, has the sensibility and the touch to treat such difficult material, but nevertheless the script (of the same author with Tiziana Leondeff) never reach the audience. The story advances laboriously, the non-core characters are just sketched and stereotyped, and most of all the main character, Antonio Albanese, not has the necessary depth, his Michele seems a man who could not accept the consequences of his actions, ever astonished by the behavior of the rest of human race, including members of his family. Early the movie slips toward a foreseeable descent, tell the truth, in the end there's a bit of relief. Great waste of talent for the performance of Margherita Buy, as always measured and effective. Awful soundtrack, by the way.

greenylennon This subtle movie is worthy everything it deserved: worthy the price of admission, the praise of the critics, the success at Roma Film Festival. Its subject is highly topical nowadays in Italy: the job insecurity, who brings uncertainty in the love life, too. But the movie deserves your attention especially because the two leads' acting skills, Margherita Buy and Antonio Albanese.Albanese, an accomplished comedy actor, shows good versatility as drama actor, but the whole scene is stolen by Margherita Buy, as Elsa, a woman who finds the strength to hold on and carry her family. Buy is prisoner of the failed wife's role, but this time she indeed excels. It's truly wonderful watching her fighting everyday to conciliate his husband and daughter.Alba Caterina Rohrwacher, who plays Alice, Elsa and Michele's daughter, is a very fine brand-new actress: she portrays a type of girl who is usually ignored in movies.Finally Italian cinema starts again to have its own dignity, and "Giorni e nuvole" (the title can sidetrack a lot) contributes to its revival.

deepdish80 A great follow up to Bread and Tulips, this story focuses on the other end of the spectrum of a relationship. As the movie progresses and the situation of the characters worsens, you begin to see subtle changes in the manner the couple interacts with each other, kudos to the fine actors for portraying such intimate and fragile emotions so realistically.Does love conquer all? Silvio Soldini (who was present after the world premiere of this in Toronto to comment on this question) isn't sure if it does, but he's hopeful. Decide for yourself and watch this film as he takes you on a journey of the highs and lows of a middle-aged relationship.