Something You Said Last Night: A Heartfelt, Gender Fluid, Italian Family Road Trip
By Jim Slotek
Rating: B-plus
The fact that Luis De Filippis’ Something You Said Last Night features a trans protagonist is not remarkable in and of itself. In fact, that unremarkable-ness is part of its charm.
What does make this heartfelt dysfunctional family road trip so unique is that the status of the daughter, Ren (Carmen Madonia) is old news as far as this Italian-Canadian family goes (so old, it goes unmentioned). Whatever noise was made en route to acceptance, even the calls to Nonna involve nothing more judgmental than whether Ren is eating enough.
Which is funny, because being trans may be the only thing this family does accept about one another. In many ways, Something You Said Last Night is a garden-variety family nightmare vacation, with a domineering mother (a spirited Ramona Milano), a gruff but loving father (Joe Parro), and two young adult daughters (Madonia and Paige Evans) who waver between going for each others’ throats and sincerely expressing sisterly love. Now stick them in a car together.
The destination is a rented beach-house on a lower-end lake resort, where the agenda is rounds of the Italian card game scopa and repeated viewings of movies. This is okay by Ren, who is more or less emotionally checked-out, her only comfort being the hauls she takes off her vape constantly throughout the movie. A wannabe writer, she has lost her job but can’t bring herself to tell her parents.
As for her sister Sienna, she is in full rebellion mode, catching the eye of the local bros, and joining the party. Her previously impeccable school record is in tatters.
There’s also a brother, Anthony (voiced by Nate Colitto), who managed to avoid the trip, but is on the phone with his mother every day.
In this feature debut, De Filippis paints an utterly believable picture of the kind of immigrant/children-of-immigrants family where emotions fly and can turn from rage to love on a dime.
As for avoiding the this-is-a-movie-about-a-trans-person syndrome, De Filippis displays a delicate touch. As I say, the word is never used. And there are but a few narrative breadcrumbs that spell things out (as when one of the local dudes, played by Augustus Oicle, is attracted to Ren but spurns her in front of the guys, “because they wouldn’t understand.” – “Wouldn’t understand what?” she responds.)
The ever-present vape and the inability of both sisters to avert their faces from their phones is an authentic touch. Both are escapes - the smartphones, in particular, providing a way to draw boundaries between each other and their parents (drama transpires over transgressive behavior involving both pieces of technology).
Beyond all that, there’s something about a lakeside summer resort background that is almost like a visual soundtrack. For all the noise sprinkled with Italian phrases and mannerisms, Something You Said Last Night eventually finds a quiet place in its storytelling.
It can’t quite be called finding peace. In this family, it’s more like a truce. But De Filippis gets full marks for painting a very human picture.
Something You Said Last Night. Written and directed by Luis De Filippis. Stars Carmen Madonia, Paige Evans and Ramona Milano. Opens Friday, July 7 at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.