Italy’s entry for best foreign language feature is the modern day crime drama Gomorra. Writer/director Matteo Garrone jumped on the Italian film scene a few years back with a movie called The Embalmer, and this film is almost identical in tone. Garrone’s contemporary-realism employs long single handheld shots, sparse dialog, and virtually no score. This makes for an interesting, though not all that entertaining look at a town completely controlled by mafia. The Camorra (the title comes from a mixture of that and the biblical Gomorrah I imagine) is the oldest criminal org in Italy and the film portrays their world as pretty intense. We are talking like the favela of City of God or Elite Squad. This film has far less action than those, though, and jumps around a lot as it follows 5 pretty separate storylines. I would have liked to see a more central focus as I felt a bit alienated from the characters, never getting to know them all that well. The film is not without its flaws, but is certainly well put together for what it is.