Mambo Italiano [DVD]

I'm not going to review the plot... amazon provides a decent one. I'm just going to supply my thoughts on the film.I first watched Mambo Italiano with my Sicilian mother and both of us almost fell off the couch laughing as we could relate to the characters because he Italian families featured in this film reminded us of our own Italian family... and Gino's mother is the classic Sicilian older woman (she's a lot like my aunts). The plot is out there but not far fetched. It really captures what growing up first generation Italian-American is all about (even though the film is Canadian). Just like My Big Fat Greek Wedding, you don't have to be of the culture (Italian, or GLBT) to understand the humor, you just have to be opened minded as it is a GLBT film. I've recommended it to many friends and all have thanked me profusely for the recommendation after they viewed it. But I might add, the film is filled with great one-liners that you might need to be Italian to understand.Also, I think Paul Sorvino gives a great performance. He plays the father so well, it reminded me of my Roman father. All the characters are great, but Sorvino gives a very convincing performance albeit a comical one. When he says "No one hates my job more than me!" I fall over laughing because I can picture my own father saying that!Whether you're Italian or not, this movie is a must have and I totally recommend picking it up and viewing it multiple times! It will not fail to make your stomach hurt from laughing.

So maybe it's aging, but it's still a charming, light comedy set against the (seriously lol) Italian community in Montreal. There's a lot of the ethnic in-jokes that, surprisingly, play across all ethnicities. A great cast, working with a light touch on material that has too often led to dreary angst-ridden gay indie films.It's the kind of film, circa 2003, that our neighbors to the the north were making when we were reducing ourselves to moronic franchises like "Eating Out" and thinking frat-boy humor was somehow different because the "boys" were gay.If you like having the occasional gay "shot" but don't want to gnawing at "issues" all night, spend the evening with Angelo (Luke Kirby) and Nino (Peter Miller) dealing with their respective families headed by Paul Sorvino.And, just for the record, check out Luke Kirby's performance (with Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams in Sarah Polley's 2011, "Take this Waltz"...it gives you hope in a world of comic-book franchises.

As Chinese student, this is just totally like the Chinese families, not just for the Italians', like the ways the moms talk to their sons, the super strong sense of family conjunctions, and parents taking over their children's responsibility as their own and showing over interference to their son's things and less respectfulness for an adult( as shown in the movie the fifty-year-old guy being pinched by their seventy-year-old parents)！ I think this might be the typical family patterns for all agricultural cultures around the world, and the feminine force always plays a greater role (holding back, sense of security and conservative, love of acceptance, nurturing, etc ) than masculine one (forwardness, courage, rationality and wanting of change) in farmer's lives, as it could be seen clearly during the scene that Angelo's parents receiving the invitation of wedding. Whenever his father wanted to DO something, his mother will speak about the downsides of it and show fearsome so that they ended up doing nothing for protest, but also left all their displeasure inside their own stomachs for digestion(the same way for Angelo's coming-out, for they pretending to claim that being gay is no more normal than it should be to the outside world). This way of showing total acceptance to family member's beings, no matter loves or hurting that they clearly couldn't stand as old-traditioned parents, and continuously being in conjunction with their children and keeping nurturing them regardless of the negative emotions flying within the family, is because they wanted to keep the family as a whole and conformity in front of the other's eyes. It is this type of love or irrationality what troubles Angelo's heart most and made him struggling between his heart and his family to make tough decisions to fit into this "real world" that the masculine force plays roles. However, as Angelo succeeded, he not only succeeded himself but also his whole family, and this is maybe the family effect I think.(as I haven't been able to watch till the end of this movie for it was blank screen for some reason) As this movie truly evokes so much same feelings and memories of families to even a different culture, I think this is really a worth-watching family comedy.

I saw Mambo Italiano 4 times in the cinema and loved it more with each viewing. Only paranoid persons would complain about any of the characters by suggesting they are stereotypical. And it is foolish to compare this fine romantic comedy to My Big Fat Greek Wedding just because of the ethnic theme. (MBFGW was a major disappointment to me - I thought it was whimsical, but bloated and forced). At least this CANADIAN film had the integrity to keep its original location rather than pretending to be set in America to suck up to the $US.Mambo Italiano is fast, clever, beautiful to look at, edited to perfection, gives very honest and very rare glimpses of suburban gay life (just as true here in Brisbane, Australia as in Montreal). Also it's very well acted by all the ensemble - some of Canada's very best.Mambo Italiano should adapt readily to the small screen, because it is plot and character driven, but it's definitely worth cranking the volume and sitting through to the credits when Cake's version of "I Will Survive" will leave you fully charged.

I really love this movie......it’s so funny! The acting is so wonderful, characters are fun.....funny family dynamics. When I’m down I put this movie in and laught my head off and realize my problems are just nothing. Actors have a great rapport with each other, looks like they had fun doing it.Sue B

Es una película en la que Sofía Loren y Marcelo Mastroiani se superan a sí mismos. La he visto muchas veces y no me canso de verla. El doblaje le quita la esencia de la idiosincrasia napolitana. Siempre la veo en versión original.

Faire une comédie à la fois gay, et italienne, il fallait oser. Faire un film drôle, sans cliché, c'est déjà bien, mais alors là c'est une réussite totale. Des scènes à mourir de rire, qui nous montre avec émotion et dérision le cruel dilemme d'un gay dans le quartier latin de Montréal.

dico solo: ahahahahahaahahhaah!!!!e se comprendete la lingua inglese allora guardate questa commedia in originale: i dialoghi e le battute sono anche meglio !!!

Dieser Film ist einfach nur genial! Ich habe selten so viel gelacht, wie in diesem Film über das Coming Out eines Sohns italienischer Einwanderer in Canada!Angelo lebt im Italiener-Viertel in Montreal zusammen mit seiner Schwester, die permanent einen Psychiater nach dem anderen aufsucht - jeden aber nur ein einziges Mal, damit dieser nicht zu viel über sie erfährt - im Haus seiner Eltern. Eines Tages entschließ er, endlich auf eigenen Beinen zu stehen und auzuziehen - zumal er sein Homosexualität auch ausleben will. Allein der Auszug aus dem Elternhaus entwickelt sich zu einer Tragödie auf offener Straße: Denn ein Italiener verlässt das Hause seiner Eltern erst, wenn er verheiratet oder gestorben ist! Als Angelo sich aber dann noch in seinen Jugendfreund Nino verliebt, dieser die Gefühle erwidert und beide zusammenziehen, outet sich Angelo und das eigentliche Familien-Drama beginnt. Hinzu stößt dann noch die Mutter von Nino, die das Chaos aus Entsetzen, Wut, Trauer, Hilflosigkeit und gegenseitigen Schuldzuweisungen perfekt macht. Es ensteht ein heiloses Durcheinander, so wie man es sich vorstellt, wenn viele aufgebrachte Italiener aufeinander treffen....In diesem Film werden alle Register gezogen und der Zuschauer wird mit allen Klischees konfrontiert, die man über Italiener so kennt und wie man es sich auch vorstellt. Das ganze ist dann noch in eine wirklich guten Story verpackt und mit lauter liebenswerten Charakteren geschmückt worden, so dass kein Auge trocken bleibt! Und der ernstere Hintergrund dieser Geschichte wird auf eine so humorvolle und liebenswerte Art und Weise dargestellt, dass nicht im geringsten eine zu tiefgründige Schwere aufkommt - heiter und unterhaltsam mit sehr viel Situations- und Wortkomik wird die ganze Geschichte erzählt!Der Film könnte das italienische Ponton zu "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" sein. Einfach nur empfelenswert, auch für Nicht-Italiener und Heteros!