With six years sobriety in tow, Abel Ferrara awards himself with an autobiographical AA coin of a movie. His sixth collaboration with Willem Dafoe, this is a typical family affair for the controversial filmmaker. Filmed in the director’s apartment in Rome, Dafoe stars opposite Ferrara’s wife (Cristina Chiriac) and three-year-old daughter (Anna Ferrara). But this is not a film like This Is Not a Film, which was shot in Jafar Panahi’s home while the director was under house arrest by the Iranian government. Self-indulgent? Of course. Overlong? Yes, but not agonizingly so. And Ferrara may have kicked the drug habit, but the same can’t be said of his fetishistic practice of mentally undressing practically every beautiful young actress on the call sheet. (There must be a better way of illustrating the perks of a job.) Dafoe is a superlative Ferrara substitute, but if you’re looking to find the two in top form, a download of Pasolini is in order. When this one was over, I turned to my viewing companion and sighed, “It’s not much of a step forward from Dangerous Game,” to which he unkindly replied, “I liked Ferrara better when he was high.” (2020) — Scott Marks
This movie is not currently in theaters.