LaCapaGira

A portrait of the various classes of criminal of the Italian heel town of Bari, this bears traces of sub-Jarmusch comedy, as two petty drug mules hang out waiting, not for Godot, but a crack delivery from the Balkans. Meanwhile the owners of an illegal video poker den feel the heat from the cops; and the local kingpin tries to enforce discipline. The director is as interested in faces, manners and slang as he is in plot mechanics - maybe the atmosphere he creates of casual violence, automatic criminality and survivalist humour is his point. His amoral stance allows for some droll downbeat portraiture, but as character studies, they lack the bite and power that Pasolini in his early frescos brought to the mid-20th century Roman cousins of these southern types.