I'm Not Scared (2003)

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

I'm Not Scared (2003)This is just slightly offbeat enough it might grab you good. And the main character, a 10 year old boy, is really effective—believable, compelling, complex. That the movie isn't a masterwork might not matter—it has parts, and aspects, that are really strong.The concept is basic—some back country thugs have gotten themselves into a kidnapping, and they aren't really quite good enough at the task to follow through. So the child is captive in a hole in the ground. That's weird and awful enough to get your attention. And it comes to light slowly, as the main character stumbles on this fact and then tries to befriend the captive boy without the kidnappers finding out.Which of course isn't going to happen. The movie really gets intense in the last half hour. Before that it is slow to the point of too slow for my taste—lots of scenes of the kinds playing in the dry loneliness of some part of Italy made of wheat fields and little else. It's set in the late 1970s, so there is no real technology involved—no cell phones, no computers. Just an old television that the group gathers around for the news once a night.The plot actually isn't what carries the movie, though I'm sure it's necessary as a vehicle for some. What works best is the whole situation—the simple folk with big ideas about the world in this beautiful but utterly isolated (and unnamed) place. If you tire of endless scenes of the kids running or biking through the great landscape, you realize the director didn't quite have much else to work with. A better sense of the kid's family, beyond the kind of rough clichés presented, would have given the movie needed depth.As it is, it's strangely simple, and yet the simplicity is what matters, and what made like it as much as I did.

Don't be thrown by the title: "I'm Not Scared". Or the minimalist image on the cover. It sounds like a low-budget horror. This movie is, in fact, one of the best on the shelves. It is a drama/thriller (perhaps even a family film) that develops momentum in unpredictable ways. It does have a slower pace but it definitely gets you there. The cinematography is exquisite all the way through - there is much beauty to behold. The story is innovative and feels realistic. It's like a really great short-story, powerful and concise. Don't let subtitles stand in the way of appreciating this modern classic. You really have to hand it to the Italian movies, another 10/10 goes to Bread and Tulips (but thats another story). See this movie.

The real mastery in this film lies in the beautiful simplicity of it's childlikeness. There are few movies in Cinema that portray the innocence and unfeigned nature of children - before the loss of their transparency on the way to adulthood. I know the French film Ponette might come to mind for some lovers of cinema, but that was shot entirely from the perspective of little children almost to the exclusion of grown ups. This film shows the stark contrast of the two worlds by interweaving them, with childhood itself being one of the main characters, as landscapes were for John Ford in so many of his Westerns. Toward the end, it reaches for the sublime in moments of Michelangelo.For me, the emotional interaction of these very young non actors made the movie spiritual to some degree by way of it's sheer honesty, without compromising the true spirituality in the principles and very adult themes of good vs. evil, betrayal, forgiveness, reaping what you sow, the coming Judgment, and finally - true friendship born of selflessness. Something we adults could learn more from by becoming more like little children ourselves, myself included. I believe this to be one of the best expressions of the young mind in realism, without crossing over into the fantasy that is so common in film today. How refreshing.Of course all of this speaks for the excellence of the Director and the Writer, who gave us such a beautiful picture. Something that could only be pulled off by adults, albeit with at least the fond memory of a child, if not the heart of one. The cinematography, the very intentional and gorgeous classical score, along with much subtle but deep contrast, make this a modern classic that I will enjoy again and again. I hope you do too.http://fullgrownministry.wordpress.com/2013/05/26/peace/

You will draw a clear sense of this gripping story from the many other excellent reviews on this site. What I want to comment on is the most amazing cinematographic depiction of HEAT ever brought to the silver screen. I've never experienced anything like it! The movie is set against the backdrop of mid summer in southern Italy - filmed in Potenza. This is the wheat-belt of Italy, and man is it hot. Every scene, every detail draws you back to that essential point - it is molto caldo. The crackle of the wheat sheaths blowing in the hot wind; the rasp of the ants crawling across the burnt dust under the wheat; the rattle of the fan in the dark kitchen, blowing across the sweat-beaded chest of a woman in a loose peasant dress. Pulsating, palpable heat. The movie should have won an Oscar for this artistic genius. It is worth seeing for this reason alone, and yet it only the setting for a terrific, compelling, disturbing story. One of the best films I have ever seen.