Don't Be Bad

Set in the mid-1990s on the outskirts of Rome, Don't Be Bad (Non essere cattivo) follows the inseparable bond between Vittorio and Cesare, two young men drifting through a life of petty crime, synthetic drugs, and hedonistic abandon in the coastal town of Ostia. Their existence is a frantic cycle of cocaine-fueled nights and bleak mornings until a terrifying hallucination forces Vittorio to confront his own mortality. Seeking a way out, Vittorio attempts to swap his life of crime for the grueling stability of manual labor, finding a new anchor in a woman named Linda.

However, as Vittorio struggles to maintain his newfound sobriety and dignity, he finds himself increasingly pulled back by his loyalty to Cesare, who remains trapped in a self-destructive spiral. Cesare, burdened by the care of his terminally ill niece and a volatile temperament, represents the ghost of a life Vittorio is desperate to leave behind. The film serves as a gritty, deeply human exploration of whether one can ever truly escape the gravitational pull of their environment or if redemption is a luxury the marginalized cannot afford.

The film is a poignant meditation on the impossibility of pure redemption within a decaying social structure. Director Claudio Caligari intended to portray the 'death of the Pasolinian world'—the transition of the subproletariat from a state of raw, vital innocence into a modern wasteland of chemical dependency and consumerist nihilism. The core message suggests that while 'not being bad' is a simple moral imperative, for those living on the margins, survival itself often demands the very transgressions that society condemns. It is a 'story of pure love' that transcends romance, focusing on the sacrificial and often tragic nature of brotherhood.

One common interpretation is that Vittorio and Cesare are two sides of the same person. Vittorio represents the 'superego' or the societal drive to conform and survive, while Cesare represents the 'id,' the raw, unbridled impulses that refuse to submit to a mundane life of labor. Their separation is not just physical but psychological, suggesting that to survive, one must 'kill' the wilder, more vital part of themselves. Another reading suggests the ending is deliberately cyclical: the birth of 'Cesare Jr.' and Vittorio's meeting with Viviana implies that the cycle of the 'borgata' will continue, with the next generation born into the same environment, questioning whether any real change has occurred.

Don't Be Bad is considered a monumental work of contemporary Italian realism. Coming 17 years after Caligari's previous film, it was hailed as the 'artistic testament' of an outsider auteur who remained faithful to his gritty vision. Its success at the Venice Film Festival and its Oscar submission revitalized interest in Caligari's earlier cult films. Culturally, it marked the breakthrough of two of Italy's most prominent modern actors, Luca Marinelli and Alessandro Borghi, whose chemistry defined a new era of Italian cinema. The film's depiction of Ostia solidified the location's status in the collective imagination as a place of cinematic tragedy and raw truth, bridging the gap between Pasolini's post-war Rome and the modern drug-fueled suburbs.

The film was met with widespread critical acclaim in Italy, particularly for its performances and its uncompromising realism. Audiences praised the visceral energy and the palpable chemistry between Marinelli and Borghi, which made the tragedy of their characters deeply personal. Some international critics found the plot somewhat conventional in the 'crime drama' genre, but most were moved by its emotional depth and its status as Caligari's swan song. Controversy was minimal, though some viewers found the depiction of drug use and hallucinations jarringly intense, which the director used to emphasize the characters' fragmented reality.