Review: A filmmaker juggles life and work in the richly rewarding ‘Mia Madre’

While concerned cineastes bemoan the lack of women behind the camera, Italian writer/director Nanni Moretti makes one his autobiographical avatar in “Mia Madre,” about an emotionally fraying filmmaker (Margherita Buy) dealing with crises professional and personal, namely a problem-beset movie shoot and the declining health of her mother (Giulia Lazzarini), a beloved Latin teacher. (Moretti’s own mother passed during the filming of one of his movies.)

This quietly wise, funny and openly sentimental mix of a gentler “8 ½” (there are dreams not readily recognizable as such) and an illness drama is tinged with the kind of honest sadness and comic frustrations that suggest a daily journal come to life.

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With an unassuming directness, Moretti — who also plays Margherita’s brother and partner-in-caregiving, Vittorio — toggles between work and life pressures in a way that finds the curious feelings and epiphanies that bind the two, and somehow give meaning to the whole dance.

A lot of that comes from Buy’s rich, deep sigh of a portrayal, equal parts self-doubt and forthrightness. (At one point, after a change-of-shot setup goes badly, she hilariously berates her crew for listening to her.) There’s also a wonderfully outsized turn by John Turturro as a blustery American movie star who can never remember his Italian lines. He’s a figure of eye-rolling irritation for Margherita, until even he finds his grace moments, off and on camera. “Mia Madre” is on one level about loss, but it’s also a humorously poignant movie about whether any of us know exactly what to do when life says “Action.”

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‘Mia Madre’

In Italian and English, with English subtitles

Running time: 1 hour, 47 minutes

MPAA rating: R, for language

Playing: Laemmle Royal, West Los Angeles; Laemmle Playhouse 7, Pasadena; and Laemmle Town Center 5, Encino