Fame Chimica grips the viewer immediately by opening with an explosion. Sadly, that remains the highest point of the movie to which we return only at the end.
The narrator is young Claudio, a silent man who is apparently the only responsible one of his age in the neighborhood. He has been telling himself that he would quit the job – working like a dog in a frozen foods company owned by American capitalists – in three months for three years now. His father, whose influence brought Claudio the job, doesn’t want him to leave the neighborhood.
The bad neighborhood reeks of unemployment and crime. All day young men, married and unmarried alike, sit on the bleachers smoking joints, pulling each others’ legs, passing comments on every passerby, and cursing the “negris” – the immigrants from North Africa who are blamed for all their problems. The nights are for wild senseless parties. Claudio provides interesting social commentary throughout.
Manuel is the only friend of Claudio in that group. He is a good helpful loser having a good time.
Enter Maria, a richer girl on whom Claudio has a crush. She returned from London but is desperate to make enough dough and leave the godforsaken country for good. Her entry brings a greater motivation for Claudio to climb up the ladder. But Manuel falls for her too. What has so far been a social commentary now includes a triangular love story.
With each new element the movie seemed to slip out of hand a little more and I could not sustain my interest enough to remember what happened next. As if Claudio’s narration was insufficient, an Italian rapper in tattoos and nose ring comments on the social situation in his enjoyable songs.
One thing I noticed in the movie was that friendly male-to-male physical contact is better among Italians than even Indians. Blaming the negris strangely reminded me of the menace of the MNS.
Fame Chimica which means “chemical hunger” and translates to The Munchies is at best for light munching.
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