Piranhas Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Piranhas Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 17, 2020

Those of you who share my interest in etymology may have been intrigued as I was by the seemingly intentional link between camorra, the name for an aggregation of Neopolitan crime gangs, and Gomorrah, the film culled from writer Roberto Saviano’s book about the camorra. It turns out that the history of the word camorra is at least a little mysterious, but it may be a portmanteau joining together the Italian words for boss (capo) and a street game (morra). One way or the other, Saviano is back, as both source novelist and co-scenarist, with Piranhas, yet another look at camorra life in what might be thought of as an almost Biblically sinning environment that inducts veritable children into a lifestyle rife with violence and mayhem. Director Claudio Giovannesi invests this disturbing tale with more than a hint of neorealist fervor, including utilizing a cast that is at least partially populated with "locals" and non-professionals, giving the story perhaps even more of a gritty, authentically lived in, flavor.

Nicola (Francesco Di Napoli, whose very surname seems to hint at his appropriateness for the film) is just one of a bunch of teenaged boys who get sucked into a life of crime, although the film doesn't really give much context other than a lingering feeling of socioeconomic hardships and a lack of a firm family structure. The film struggles at times to really deliver any emotional content, despite some seemingly deliberately shocking scenes of the kids erupting into violence. There is a putative romantic angle once Letizia (Viviana Aprea) enters the fray, though the film perhaps traffics in some overly hoary clichés by having her come from a rival crime family. The mix of performance acumen here may through some viewers off balance, or even completely out of the story, but Piranhas does deliver some intermittently visceral material, albeit arguably not at the consistently disturbing levels provided by Gomorrah.

Piranhas Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Piranhas is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Music Box Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb lists Arri Alexas as having been used, and kind of surprisingly (at least to me), this was evidently finished at a 4K DI (again according to the IMDb). While the palette here is often just slightly tamped down, and occasionally seemingly intentionally skewed toward a kind of orange-yellow tone, detail levels are routinely quite impressive throughout this transfer. Giovanessi and director of photography Daniele Cipri often favor a lot of close-ups on faces, typically filling the corners of the frame, and these can offer very commendable levels of fine detail. Nice location work also provides sharp precision on some cityscapes. There are occasional very slight traces of noise in some of the darkest scenes, as can perhaps be made out in screenshot 9.

Piranhas Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Piranhas features DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and LPCM 2.0 tracks in the original Italian, with optional English subtitles. Both of these tracks provide more than capable support for dialogue and effects, but the surround track really opens up the soundfield with regard to some of the urban location work in particular, notably a number of scenes where Nicola and his buddies tool around the town on their little motorized scooters. Fidelity is fine throughout the presentation, and I noticed no issues whatsoever to cause any concern.

Piranhas Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making of Piranhas (1080p; 7:22) is in Italian with English subtitles.


• Interview with Writer Roberto Saviano (1080p; 2:22) is in Italian with English subtitles.


• Press Conference from 2019 Berliniale (1080p; 28:51) is (largely) in Italian with pretty heavily accented English (simultaneous?) voiceover translation.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:06)

Piranhas Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Piranhas doesn't quite muster the devastating emotional energy that informed a lot of Gomorrah, but for fans of that film or perhaps of Saviano's writing in particular may find this at least intermittently providing some impact. Some of the younger actors are better than others, so there is a bit of a disconnect in the film in terms of a consistent level of performance acumen. Technical merits are first rate for those considering a purchase.