‘In Search of Fellini’: Film Review

Taron Lexton’s sentimental road movie recounts a formative real(ish)-life vacation for screenwriter (and voice of Bart Simpson) Nancy Cartwright.

An idealized coming-of-age memoir in which a young woman’s disability-grade innocence doesn’t keep her from making the most of a solo sojourn across Italy, Taron Lexton’s In Search of Fellini speaks to and for women raised on cinematic fairy tales. Inspired by the experiences of The Simpsons star Nancy Cartwright, who before creating the voice of Bart went off hunting the auteur of La Dolce Vita, it marks the thesp’s first screenplay (co-written by another newbie, Peter Kjenaas). But however much its sentimentalized innocence stretches credulity, the overall production remains polished, and young dreamers who come across it in limited release may well embrace it.

Ksenia Solo plays Lucy, a blonde waif raised by a mother (Maria Bello’s Claire) who protected her from nearly every harsh reality life has to offer. Claire fails to protect Lucy from art house cinema, though: Upon stumbling into a screening of La Strada, Lucy sees a kindred spirit in sacrificial lamb Giulietta Masina. She falls hard for Fellini, gathering a stack of VHS tapes (the year is 1993) and absorbing the weird circus of his worldview.

Click here to read the rest of this review at The Hollywood Reporter.

Opening with a dream-sequence that serves as a statement of purpose, In Search of Fellini is a film about cinema and the magic of the medium, its deep history and the joy it conjures in those who truly love the moving picture. The sequence also establishes that this is more reality-adjacent than real. The viewer who decides to submit to the film’s immediately apparent charms will be rewarded with a delightful coming of age story that carefully dips into the fantasy that lies at the heart of cinema.

In Search of Fellini follows the story of Lucy (Ksenia Solo), a 20-year-old who has never really experienced adult life because of the overbearing parenting style of her snakebit-by-the-world mother Claire (Maria Bello). After a voiceover-prologue that establishes Claire’s backstory and Lucy’s origins, the film quickly fasts forward to the early ‘90s, when Claire is diagnosed with advanced and aggressive cancer and Lucy is 20. Claire discusses her ailment with her sister and intends to keep it a secret from Lucy, but Lucy finds out anyhow. This commences a classic coming of age narrative.

Lucy endeavors to find a job, but has no skills. She is interested in film, though, and parlays that into an application that leads to an interview…at a local porn distributor, where her complete lack of gumption and worldliness sets up a funny scene that ultimately ends with her in tears. A few blocks from the failed interview, she quite literally stumbles upon a Fellini film festival. While Lucy grew up voraciously consuming films, she only ever watched sappy ‘50s-era Hollywood productions; this is her first taste of European art cinema. After watching La Strada on the big screen, she has an epiphany.

Click here to read the rest of this review at Spectrum Culture.

With all the hallmarks of a Fellini film itself, from interpretive and metaphoric visuals to story, the structure of the film interlaces Fellini films with our heroine Lucy’s journey through life as she lives out her fantasies of what she believes the world is thanks to Fellini’s lens. And as we see unfold, life really IS a Fellini movie; from life and death to love and sorrow and everything in between. Obsessed with Fellini, his films, and his storytelling, and having led a very sheltered life under the watchful eye of her loving but over-protective mother Claire, Lucy strikes out on her own and heads to Italy IN SEARCH OF FELLINI.

The story itself is beautiful and resonant. Co-written by Nancy Cartwright and Peter Kjenaas, and based on/inspired by a personal journey of Cartwright’s decades ago, ISOF has been 20 years in the making. Going through may itterations before reaching this ultimate version, the characters are well defined – even if just by a look – to the point that we know each one of them even without them saying a word. Perhaps this is more readily apparent to a Fellini fan, but no words are even necessary to “know” each character. Just a visual, and of course thanks to the editing of Spencer Jones and Alexa Vier, we are given Fellini context with a lovely ebb and flow style. Standout is the story construct as we go back and forth between Claire and Lucy. While Claire sits at home in America watching Fellini films with her sister Kerri, she finally begins to understand Lucy, as the audience sees Lucy playing out life for the first time, an ocean away. Beautifully done and tacitly speaks to that never-ending umbilical cord between Claire and Lucy.

Click here to read the rest of this review at Behind the Lens.

Your appreciation of Taron Lexton’s In Search of Fellini will correlate directly to your appreciation of its winsome lead, Lucy (Ksenia Solo). Lucy is a small town girl from Ohio who, having spent her life living in a protective bubble shaped by mother Claire (Maria Bello) to protect her from the vagaries of being human, decides to make for Italy to meet Federico Fellini, the maestro himself. She is enchanted by his films, as anyone would be, after watching them all during a Fellini film festival, and having been raised on dreams and whimsy, she cannot resist the allure of his magic.

After spending just a few minutes in Lucy’s company, you’ll realize: She’s agonizingly naive. But Lucy’s childlike manner is almost in keeping with Fellini’s pre-’60s work, populated by female leads possessed of varying degrees of innocence. In so many ways, she’s the perfect Fellini female lead, a true believer in the sort of magic that runs like a current through his filmography. (It doesn’t hurt, either, that she’s a spiritual dead ringer for Giulietta Masina, Fellini’s favorite leading lady, not only in his cinema but in his life: They married in 1943, and stayed together until his death in 1993 in spite of his affairs and his functional ineptitude concerning all things unrelated to filmmaking.)

Read the rest of this review at Paste Magazine.

I can’t remember the last time I was so charmed by a movie that was dumped into limited release, received decidedly mixed reviews and could easily be lost in the shuffle of January DVD/VOD releases that receive little fanfare.

Maybe, though, I can help draw attention to In Search of Fellini if I point out the romantic fantasy’s “Simpsons” connection. Everybody loves “The Simpsons.” In Search of Fellini was adapted from a one-woman play by Nancy Cartwright (with Peter Kjenaas,) who, since 1989, has been the voice of Bart Simpson on Fox’s trail-blazing animated series.

Before that, however, the Ohio native joined an acting class taught by Milton Katselas. He recommended that she study Federico Fellini’s La Strada (1954), which starred Giulietta Masina as the street urchin sold by her mother to circus strongman Zampano (Anthony Quinn) to be his comic foil. Cartwright recalls performing “every imaginable scene” from the movie in her class and spending several months trying to secure the rights to produce a stage adaptation.

Read more at MCN.

In Search of Fellini, the new movie from writers Nancy Cartwright and Peter Kjenaas, is a whimsical journey from rural Ohio to the wonders of Italy. The one making this journey is Lucy (Ksenia Solo), a quiet young woman who has been sheltered her entire life by her mother, Claire (Maria Bello). When she breaks free of her home life, Lucy heads to the European country in search of her favorite film director, Federico Fellini.

As to be expected, Lucy finds a lot more on her journey than just the famed Italian filmmaker, who was responsible for such classics as La Strada, La Dolve Vita and 8 1/2. Lucy, for example, makes a stopover in Verona, a picturesque city that served as inspiration for William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. In that lovely town by the river, Lucy finds a friend in Pietro (Enrico Oetiker). They explore the city together, and their conversations prove to be exactly what Lucy is looking for: a change from the ordinary. Although her mother is loving and caring, Lucy hardly left the house as a child and never had any relationships in the outside world. Pietro shows her a different way to live one’s life.

Click here to read the rest of this review at Hollywood Soapbox.

‘In Search of Fellini’ On Netflix: Watch The Nostalgic Coming-Of-Age Adventure Now

In Search of Fellini is rife with imagery that reference Fellini’s works and rich visual style, but it’s enjoyable for Fellini-first timers and superfans alike. There’s an immersive nature to the entire film; by the end, you’ll feel as though you too have traveled through Italy, collecting postcards in Rome, Venice, and Verona.

Click here to read the rest of this review at Decider.com.