The ability to interlace reality and fantasy is one of cinema's strengths, and at times Mia Madre is as bewitchingly surreal as 8 1/2, Fellini's stream-of-consciousness classic.

A woman’s struggle to balance her career and family is well-trodden ground in narrative cinema, but “Mia Madre” goes beyond the surface to illustrate one woman’s own experiences in nuanced — albeit ...

Mia madre opens with a labor demonstration in Rome, which like almost all movie demonstrations is unconvincing. Fortunately, in this case it’s meant to be that way, since it’s part of a film ...

mia-madre-reviewWhile its sadder elements simmer, subtle yet efficiently beneath the surface, Moretti's latest is adorned by its elegant dialogue.

Nanni Moretti’s “Mia Madre,” starring Margherita Buy, is something more than a work of personal cinema—it’s a virtual manifesto for it, an effort to grasp the very motive for his art.

“Mia Madre,” then, shows us what we don’t expect: The dark humor in illness, the ridiculous requirements of making great art, the real life we experience beyond the images we see.

Film director Margherita (Margherita Guy) participates in a press conference with her film’s star Barry Huggins (John Turturro) in a scene from “Mia Madre” | COURTESY MUSIC BOX FILMS ...

That experience of loss, if not its precise circumstances, informs his follow-up, the semi-autobiographical “Mia Madre,” which centers on a female stand-in for Moretti.

Such is Werner Herzog’s idea, I reckon, of the perfect vacation: to infinity and beyond. The new and sorrowful film by Nanni Moretti, “Mia Madre,” is about a movie director.

Italian writer-director Nanni Moretti’s autobiographically inspired Mia Madre captures this dislocation in an intriguing – though sometimes frustrating – way.

“Mia Madre” centers on a director, played by Buy, who is shooting an Italian film with a famous American actor (Turturro), who’s also a disruptive blowhard and buffoon.