Parthenope

Italian writer-director Paolo Sorrentino – known for films like Youth, The Great Beauty and The Hand of God – returns to our screens with his latest offering, Parthenope.

In this coming-of-age drama, we follow the titular character Parthenope (Celeste Dalla Porta), an undeniably beautiful young woman as she tries to find love, purpose and happiness in her life.

The film is split into several sections, from her birth in 1950, to her 18th birthday in 1968, and her retirement in 2023 (with a few chapters in between).

Parthenope’s biggest downfall is that we never truly understand our mysterious title character. We witness lots of encounters and events in her life but never really know what she thinks about them.

Because Sorrentino never lets us get under her skin, she feels hollow and out of reach, making it hard to invest in her journey and the film as a whole.

We get small windows into her...