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Indie film spotlight: MANGIACAKE

MANGIACAKE (Nate Estabrooks). Opens Friday (June 19) at the Carlton. Rating: N

Where to watch: iTunes


“I’m not yelling – I’m Italian!” says a character at the end of Mangiacake. It’s the funniest line in the film, and the only one that rings true.

Twenty-something Italo-Canadian siblings Marie (Christina Cuffari) and Tessa (Melanie Scrofano) are back at home living with their depressed, possibly alcoholic mother (Paula MacPherson) and their snooping nonna (Jocelyne Zucco). Tessa, a Chinese medicine student, has suffered a concussion, while Marie is a struggling actor who’s carrying on a texting flirtation with a WASP (the title is a derogatory Italian term for white Canadians).

For some reason, the two sisters hate each other, and much of the script – by director Nate Estabrooks and Cuffari – is devoted to their puerile, unfunny, disturbing squabbles. I lost count of how many times the c-word is used.

There’s no sense of place (apparently it was shot in Ottawa), MacPherson’s Lilianna seems never to have met her daughters before, and the atonal romantic development in the second half isn’t properly set up.

While some backstory is hinted at in a scene involving a memorial service for the sisters’ father, the writers and director fall back on cheap jokes instead of mining anything resembling genuine emotion. 79 minutes.   

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