Tribeca Film Festival movie review: 'Italian Studies'

Vanessa Kirby stars in 'Italian Studies.' (Image courtesy Tribeca Film Festival)

Vanessa Kirby stars as an amnesiac woman who suddenly forgets every detail of her life in the pensive drama 'Italian Studies' (screening during the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival)

In short: A writer (Kirby) loses her memory. Adrift in NYC, she connects with a group of teenagers.

Unless the premise is known going in, 'Studies' is frustratingly enigmatic. The film opens with the writer apparently living her normal life, fully aware of who she is and who her friends are. After a short interaction of some fleeting familiarity, she flashes back to a mundane errand on a normal day. Then, quietly and without warning, the writer switches from focused ... to looking lost. From here, she just floats around Manhattan, with only the vaguest and mysterious of directives: to find some girl.

And that's basically the film. Vanessa Kirby aimlessly just walking New York City streets. The most creative choice the film makes is having Kirby's performance balance looking lost, her cognizant awareness that she's lost and her conscious choice to not appear lost. This one dynamic is all that keeps the film from sinking under the weight of its tedium.

Clocking at at 81 minutes, including credits, 'Italian Studies' is the worst kind of film under 90 minutes: one that feels much longer than its meager runtime. The film flitters in various directions - had the script committed to any one direction, perhaps 'Studies' could have maintained interest. In some moments, the film is focused on the basic logistics of how an amnesiac woman would sustain herself in Manhattan - because in addition to not having an idea of who she is, she also doesn't have a clue where she's staying and she doesn't have any money in her pockets. In other moments, 'Studies' leans into the idea of a lost woman wandering in the overwhelming noise of New York City. Sprinkled throughout the drama are talking head segments, with Kirby's character just off-screen as she asks some teens some questions about love and ... bread sandwiches.

The script makes no attempt to explain what initiated her memory loss - which is totally fine if the point of 'Studies' is purely experiential. This film's main failing is its lack of focus and lack of conviction. The writer has little to no interest in resolving her main problem - that of her memory loss. So the writer just floats rudderless, oddly compelled to engage with a group of teens she meets. The only force compelling her to any degree is the vaguest impulse to have conversations with the teens she meets - conversations that are real and some that are imagined. So she's not desperately driven to solve her identity problem and she's only sorta bobbing along as the current nudges her toward these teens. It's difficult for any audience to invest in or care about a protagonist's plight when they barely care about their own plight.

Final verdict: One time a woman lost her memory and met some teens in New York. Then she got her memory back. If that sounds exciting, then 'Italian Studies' is the movie for you. If not, be assured knowing 'Studies' doesn't offer much more than this uber dry description and feel free to pass on this movie.

Score: 2/5

'Italian Studies' screens during the 2021 Tribeca Film Festival. This drama is unrated and has a runtime of 81 minutes.