Bad Tales (2020) poster
2020 · drama

Bad Tales

Directed by Fabio D'Innocenzo, Damiano D'Innocenzo1h 38m2020
ElsewhereIMDb6.47kRT47%Metacritic60
  • heavy
  • measured
  • intense
  • bleak
  • cold
Movie DNA

Heavy, measured, measured drama, inventive in texture. Nihilistic, intimate, cold, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

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In a small suburb on the outskirts of Rome, the cheerful heat of summer camouflages a stifling atmosphere of alienation. From a distance, the families seem normal, but it’s an illusion: in the houses, courtyards and gardens, silence shrouds the subtle sadism of the fathers, the passivity of the mothers and the guilty indifference of adults. But it’s the desperation and repressed rage of the children that will explode and cut through this grotesque façade, with devastating consequences for the entire community.

Our read · Bad Tales (2020) reads as a heavy, measured, inventive drama entry — measured in intensity, intimate in scope, cold in temperature, nihilistic in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Bad Tales

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want glossy suburbia peeled back to expose poisoned families and children.

ends devastatingit will wreck youa slow buildgrips by minute 18attention 4/5earns its lengthsubtitles: full
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-upchild perilsuicide themedrug use

Skip it tonightSkip if child peril, collective suicide, and suburban cruelty will haunt you.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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