As the stereotype goes, the job of a film critic is to determine whether a film is good or bad. In reality, however, many films don’t fit into this simplistic binary. More to the point, there are a lot of movies that could be described as forgettably satisfactory. In other words, perfectly adequate filmmaking, which nevertheless leaves no kind of lasting impression.
“Antonio tracks down Agostino, now a truck driver, and embarks on a road trip with him across continental Europe.”
Simone Catania’s Drive Me Home offers a pretty good illustration of what this kind of filmmaking can look like in practice. The film’s protagonists are two 30-something men from Sicily. Antonio (Vinicio Marchioni) and Agostino (Marco D’Amore) haven’t spoken since they were teenagers. At the film’s start, Antonio tracks down Agostino, now a truck driver, and embarks on a road trip with him across continental Europe.
Gradually, it becomes clear that Antonio and Agostino are more than just old friends. It turns out that the two of them had a torrid sexual affair when they were adolescents. After Agostino confessed everything to his homophobic father, however, the two boys were split up. To avoid his family’s wrath, Agostino ran away to Belgium, while Antonio ended up spending several years in London.
"…Ultimately, however, this is a film that you’ll forget about almost instantly."
