Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
Milan, Italy, 1967. Santo Russo, a boy of Calabrian origin, arrives north with his parents and younger brother to find better living conditions. Due to an absurd misunderstanding and his father's contempt, Santo ends up in prison, where he gets a “true education.” In 1978, he and his friends Slim and Mario embark on a 15-year criminal career, a successful and ruthless spiral of robberies, kidnappings, murders and heroin smuggling.
The Ruthless is a competent Italian crime drama tracing the rise of a Calabrian criminal in Milan across several decades. The plot follows a fairly familiar arc — disadvantaged youth, prison education, criminal empire — that echoes countless gangster sagas without offering much structural surprise. The acting is solid, particularly the lead, but rarely transcends the genre. Cinematography is serviceable and period-appropriate without being particularly distinctive. Novelty suffers because the film treads well-worn Goodfellas/Gomorra territory without a sufficiently singular voice or perspective. The ending feels abrupt and somewhat unsatisfying, failing to deliver the emotional or thematic payoff the long runtime builds toward.