AMANDA (2023) - Mark Reviews Movies

Amanda, Oscilloscope Laboratories

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 6, 2023

Thanks to her well-to-do family, Amanda (Benedetta Porcaroli) essentially has everything she could ever want or need, and because of that, this 24-year-old woman doesn't have the one thing we all require: a sense of purpose. That's the main thrust of writer/director Carolina Cavalli's Amanda, a low-key comedy about the perils of privilege that might buy a bit too much into its protagonist's potential as a character worth examining.

As soon as the irony and joke of her existence becomes clear, there's really not much to Amanda. Her existence is one of waiting around for something to happen, feeling sorry for herself that it never does, and sabotaging any possibility that does emerge. Cavalli offers up some hints as to the psychology of why Amanda behaves in this way, but the insights and stakes of this story are too slight for them to mean much of anything.

As a comedy, though, the movie is consistently amusing, although the repetitive nature of Amanda's life and personality means the central joke never evolves beyond that. We first meet Amanda as a little girl, falling into the pool and being rescued by her family's maid Judy (Ana Cecilia Ponce). Now a young adult, Amanda considers Judy to be her only friend—a situation that her mother Sofia (Monica Nappo) will no longer allow.

Instead, Sofia tries to arrange the equivalent of a playdate for her adult daughter, trying to connect Amanda with the similarly aged and troubled daughter of a friend. That young woman is Rebecca (Galatéa Bellugi), who spends her days locked inside her bedroom. After learning that the two briefly were childhood friends until her family moved from Italy to Paris, Amanda makes it her mission to become best friends with Rebecca, who is aggravated by the idea of having anyone near her.

Slowly but with determination and a few lies, Amanda breaks through her peer's defenses, but even with a friend, Amanda's life and attitude remain mostly miserable. Basically, there's never enough attention coming her way, so her life feels like a void, mostly of her own making—by avoiding a guy who's a regular at a local movie theater like her, wandering around at underground dance clubs, and running out of things to say about anything when a dude (played by Michele Bravil) at a rave asks her out to a restaurant.

She's boring, in other words, because she has never had to make an effort and now refuses to do so. Yes, it's funny to watch this self-involved character make a mounting mess of what little life she actually possesses, and Porcaroli has a certain understated charm that makes the character more sympathetic and far less insufferable than any description of her might imply. Ultimately, though, Amanda feels almost as aimless as its eponymous character, whose existence as a one-note joke about entitlement only takes the material so far.

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