‘Something You Said Last Night’ Review: A Beautifully Understated Vacation Story [TIFF 2022]
AN IMPORTANT AND RESONANT DEBUT FROM RISING TALENT LUIS DE FILIPPIS.
Something You Said Last Night marks the debut feature of Italian-Canadian filmmaker Luis De Filippis. The film follows a character named Renata, played by newcomer Carmen Madonia, on her vacation with her Italian family to a beach house in the heart of Northern Ontario. What follows is a beautifully understated dramedy that encapsulates a multitude of feelings and translates them into a memorable film.
Renata, commonly referred to as ‘Ren’ by her family, is a struggling writer in her twenties, who is hiding a secret from her family as she embarks on a vacation with them. The vacation serves as the main plotline of the film, and De Filippis channels what seem to be personal memories and experiences into making the vacation feel every bit as boring, awkward, and also surprisingly fun family vacations can be at times. There’s such an understated levity that De Filippis is able to infuse into every turn, making even the most mundane domestic disputes and squabbles seem realistic and also layered, with little-to-no expository or cliche dialogue in sight.
The vacation represents a crossroads for its lead character, Renata, which newcomer Madonia, in a star-making turn, is able to convey so strongly with such little introspective dialogue. Ren is a complicated person in a complicated situation. She’s in a far from ideal place from career and financial standpoints, and having to rely on her parents once again comes with a sense of apprehension. She’s a daughter, a sister, and a writer. She is these things first and foremost, and she is also a trans woman. With the film coming from the strong creative voices of De Filippis and Madonia, both trans women, at the helm, Something You Said Last Night marks an important moment in Canadian cinema, with a thoroughly authentic depiction of the subject matter. Ren is a trans character who has her own agency, and is not a trans character being used for exploitation or victimhood. She is openly trans, and her identity is lovingly accepted by her family, which the film doesn’t make note of or try to pride itself on, setting a precedent for transgender representation in Canadian film.
De Filippis molds the strong character work and a seemingly mundane vacation into a film that does quite a bit with a modest runtime and sparse dialogue, a testament to the film’s effortlessly sharp direction. The visual style of the film is able to capture the mood and feel of each scene so aptly, with many moments given lots of time to linger and speak volumes as a result, all looking lavishly captured with a very sensitive approach by cinematographer Norm Li. Every moment is able to be incredibly resonant, no matter how specific the interactions between characters may be.
Something You Said Last Night is primed to be a gem ripe for discovery coming out of this year’s TIFF Festival, and will hopefully gain an audience and bestow its extremely resonant experience onto the larger film world.