U.S. Palmese

There is a specific kind of madness that only exists in small-town sports, a brand of delusion so pure it almost circles back around to being a business plan. In the Manetti Bros’ latest outing, U.S. Palmese, that delusion wears the face of Rocco Papaleo, playing Don Vincenzo with a twinkle in his eye that suggests he’s either a genius or needs a very long nap. When Vincenzo decides to save his flailing local soccer team by recruiting Etienne Morville—the best, and most ill-tempered, player in the world—it feels like the setup for a standard fish-out-of-water comedy. But because this is a Manetti Bros production, the film trades slick Hollywood slapstick for something far more textured, dusty, and strangely sincere.

I watched this while my neighbor was loudly practicing the accordion in the apartment next door, and honestly, the rhythmic squeezing of the bellows provided a surprisingly perfect soundtrack to the film’s Mediterranean pacing.

The Gospel According to Don Vincenzo

The Manetti Bros (Antonio and Marco) have spent years building a reputation as the kings of Italian genre-bending, usually infusing Naples with a stylized, almost comic-book energy in films like Song 'e Napule. Here, they shift their lens to Palmi, Calabria. The town itself is a character—not the postcard-perfect Italy of luxury travel vlogs, but a place of sun-bleached walls and ancient social hierarchies.

Rocco Papaleo is the anchor here. As Vincenzo, he avoids the "lovable old man" cliché by playing the character with a quiet, manipulative stubbornness. He isn't just a fan; he’s a man who believes that the sheer force of local pride can overcome a multi-million-euro salary gap. When he organizes the fundraiser to hire Etienne Morville (Blaise Afonso), the film taps into a very contemporary conversation about the absurdity of modern celebrity. Morville is a man who has everything—the Milanese penthouse, the fame, the ego—yet he is utterly miserable. He makes the real-world antics of Mario Balotelli look like a vow of silence. Watching him get dropped into a town where people care more about the quality of their bergamot than his Instagram follower count is where the film finds its funniest friction.

A Different Kind of Goal

What struck me most about U.S. Palmese is how it handles the "revelation" arc. Usually, in these movies, the big star teaches the locals how to win, and the locals teach the star how to love. While those beats are present, the Manetti Bros are more interested in the clash of realities. Blaise Afonso plays Morville with a fantastic, brooding physicality. He doesn’t just look like a soccer player; he looks like a man who has been "branded" into exhaustion. His chemistry with Giulia Maenza, who plays Concetta, provides the necessary grounded foil to his high-strung celebrity persona.

However, the film does struggle with its 122-minute runtime. In an era where streaming platforms have conditioned us for rapid-fire "content," a two-hour comedy about a regional soccer team feels like a big ask. There are moments where the plot meanders through the side streets of Palmi a little too long, and the subplots involving the supporting cast—like Claudia Gerini’s Adele—occasionally feel like they belong to a different, slightly more melodramatic movie. But even when the pacing wobbles, the visual language remains vibrant. The directors treat the soccer pitch not as a high-tech arena, but as a stage for a community drama, capturing the grit and the sweat with more honesty than your average Nike commercial.

Sincerity in the Age of Irony

In the current landscape of "cynical" cinema, where everything is a meta-commentary or a franchise play, U.S. Palmese feels like an outlier. It’s an obscure gem that likely won’t get the massive global theatrical push it deserves, probably destined to be "that weirdly charming Italian movie" you stumble across on a streaming service on a Tuesday night.

The film’s greatest strength is its refusal to mock its provincial characters. It would have been easy to make the people of Palmi look like caricatures, but the screenplay (penned by Antonio Manetti and Emiliano Rubbi) treats their obsession with the team as a legitimate form of faith. It’s a movie about the "beautiful game," sure, but it’s more about the beautiful absurdity of staying local in a globalized world. The soccer scenes are ultimately secondary to the scenes of people just talking over espresso, and for me, that’s where the real goal was scored.

U.S. Palmese is a warm, slightly overlong, but deeply felt comedy that proves the Manetti Bros haven't lost their touch for finding extraordinary stories in ordinary corners of Italy. It’s a film that asks what happens when a man who has everything meets a town that needs only one thing, and the answer is as messy and colorful as a Calabrian Sunday. If you can handle a slower burn than your typical sports flick, this is a trip to the toe of the boot worth taking.