Crime clans weave brutal web in "Gomorrah"

If "The Godfather" is the operatic pinnacle of gangster movies, let "Gomorrah" be its biblical counterpart. And it's not the Good News stuff; this is Old Testament fury and vengeance, full of fire, brimstone, ashes, dust and the primordial nature of humankind as played among moldering urban jungles and contaminated countrysides around modern Naples.

Italian journalist Roberto Saviano remains in hiding after weaving convoluted insider details of the Camorra mob into his 2006 book. Director Matteo Garrone has extracted and slightly fictionalized some of the sketches into a superbly interwoven portrait of reality that stands as a magnificent achievement in the annals of crime cinema.

The five stories have virtually no connection with each other, but the baseness with which this mob organization holds sway on everyday life seethes at their interrelated core. The influence of the warring Camorra clans is so extensive that tendrils touch everything from corporate boardrooms, squalid apartment blocks, farmers whose rustic landscapes have become toxified and Hollywood starlets on a red carpet in Cannes.

The situations unfold with kinetic fluidity, snaking between a young boy (Salvatore Abruzzese) learning his marks — quite literally — in street-level operations, a pair of brash teens (Ciro Petrone and Marco Macor) who believe they're stars in their own gangster movie, and a polished boss (Toni Servillo) whose murderous scheme claims the Earth itself as victim.

Amid the brutality and unflinching realism, there's a fair amount of pathos in the script's meticulous disorder — especially in the stories of an older Camorra functionary (Gianfelice Imparato) who only wants out, and an unsuspecting tailor (Salvatore Cantalupo) whose peripheral connection to the mob exposes a deadly side to haute couture.

There's absolutely no sentimentality in Garrone's portraiture. The camera is constantly prowling among its subjects, lending a sense of disquiet that mirrors the uncertainty of their very existence. Though the imagery is stark and the bursts of violence utterly unstylized, the formal structure and narrative approach of "Gomorrah" is precisely calculated to elevate its genre to a new level of art and entertainment.

Ted Fry: tedfry@hotmail.com