Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Rome, 1989. On his last day of high school, Luca gets in trouble when he takes it all out on hated literature teacher Martinelli, only to discover he's going to be heading the examination board for his finals. During a summer of fruitless study, he falls in love with a girl he met once at a party, unaware that she's Martinelli's daughter. The latter, strangely enough, has just offered Luca to prepare with him...
A charming Italian coming-of-age comedy-drama set in the late 1980s, The Night Before the Exams hits familiar genre beats — the exam pressure, the summer romance, the grudging mentor figure — without offering much that distinguishes it from countless other adolescent nostalgia films. The plot is competently constructed with a nice ironic setup (the girl turns out to be the teacher's daughter), but the coincidence-driven narrative leans on well-worn contrivances. Acting is solid and naturalistic across the board, capturing the anxiety and lightness of youth effectively. Cinematography is functional and period-appropriate without being particularly inventive. Novelty is the film's weakest point: it recycles recognizable coming-of-age tropes within a nostalgic 1980s Italian setting, and while the execution is likable, there's little here that feels singular or unexpected. The ending wraps things up satisfactorily in keeping with the gentle tone, though without any particular surprise or resonance.