I mostri

Obvious but effective social satire that, although it makes its point clear since the very first short, remains an enjoyable, funny and well-acted critique on the declining moral values in 1960's Italy that still resonates today. Vibrant verbosity gives life to predictable story-arcs and Risi's simple direction fits the film perfectly. It would have probably been even better if some of the most pointless shorts had been excluded.

A poignant film about a rotting society. Simple but not simplistic, enjoyable but not silly, easily watchable but not half-baked.

The Commedia All'italiana has some of my favorite cinema of all time, but its strength lies in how integral the humor is to the plot - it's a kind of comedy that never feels like it has any "jokes". In I Mostri's case, the anthology format basically makes it into a bunch of skits, and while it offered me insight into how some of my favorite writers devise a single scene, they don't really stand alone as the humor isn't "punchy" enough. I wish they'd made the final (boxing) one into a feature.

Enjoyable anthology film nevertheless can't quite overcome the inherent problem of superficiality in many of the stories - if a few of the more inconsequential sequences had been trimmed to give the better stories a little more meat, this could have really been something special. What's here is fine, and easy to take - and often times very funny, with Tognazzi and Gassman the perfect throughlines, though the sequences involving men getting the better of women do become repetitive after a while.

Monstros indeed. Universal e atemporal, a sociedade italiana nada difere do brasileiroi médio de 2020. O mais curioso sobre esse filme é que ele fecha mesmo um círculo de extremos, enquanto a primeira vinheta me deixou boquiabertamente chocada com o pior pai do mundo, o filme encerra com um episódio MUITO melancólico sobre o boxeador, no meio disso tudo gargalhadas a mil. Box Versátil Obras-primas da Comédia.