The TL:DR: A film about football culture without football. Three points for showing the lives of working class people in Napoli and trying to be Ken Loach.
Long version: Even if you aren't part of the Ultras/Hooligan/Casula culture you probably have some images in your head associated with it. Now I'm not saying a filmmaker has to show reality, but if your movie is portraying a certain way of life and even claims it in the title, maybe you should make it as real as possible. With football this clearly is a budget/rights/access issue, with Ultras it even becomes political. Football clubs have a love/hate (often mir on the hate side) relationship with "active" fans. And the fans are very picky themselves, when it comes to their portrayal in media.
That's maybe why "classic" football violence and politics have been left out of this movie.
One could argue: This is just a movie for everyone, Ultras culture is just a background setting, but at the same time people it will have difficulties reading a lot of scenes without a certain knowledge of the codes and rules of said culture.
What's left is the portrayal of a slice of Neapolitan society that - I guess - tries to show the everyday grind of people and how their true god is football.
Without really showing this god. Or without accomplishing to show why this has become a facade, a ritual without meaning.
On a more structural level it is hard to sympathise with the people in Ultras. They lack dimension and motivation. I understand the time constraints of movies make this hard, but I can't shake the feeling the director feels to be part of the Ultras scene, but has a rather narrow view on the people in it. Not really condescending, but kind of how some parents can't shake of certain views they have of their child, failing to see the what their children really are capable of.
Full disclosure: I stopped watching after about an hour, because the movie just didn't come together for me at this point. I might come back and update my review, but I doubt it.
Long version: Even if you aren't part of the Ultras/Hooligan/Casula culture you probably have some images in your head associated with it. Now I'm not saying a filmmaker has to show reality, but if your movie is portraying a certain way of life and even claims it in the title, maybe you should make it as real as possible. With football this clearly is a budget/rights/access issue, with Ultras it even becomes political. Football clubs have a love/hate (often mir on the hate side) relationship with "active" fans. And the fans are very picky themselves, when it comes to their portrayal in media.
That's maybe why "classic" football violence and politics have been left out of this movie.
One could argue: This is just a movie for everyone, Ultras culture is just a background setting, but at the same time people it will have difficulties reading a lot of scenes without a certain knowledge of the codes and rules of said culture.
What's left is the portrayal of a slice of Neapolitan society that - I guess - tries to show the everyday grind of people and how their true god is football.
Without really showing this god. Or without accomplishing to show why this has become a facade, a ritual without meaning.
On a more structural level it is hard to sympathise with the people in Ultras. They lack dimension and motivation. I understand the time constraints of movies make this hard, but I can't shake the feeling the director feels to be part of the Ultras scene, but has a rather narrow view on the people in it. Not really condescending, but kind of how some parents can't shake of certain views they have of their child, failing to see the what their children really are capable of.
Full disclosure: I stopped watching after about an hour, because the movie just didn't come together for me at this point. I might come back and update my review, but I doubt it.