The Hand of Godis filled with the kind of detail that could only have come from observation-and memory. That one family could contain so many unique and peculiar people is a reminder that truth is almost always stranger than fiction.

This is a deeply affecting coming-of-age story that doubles as a movie about the movies themselves.

The film has the vividness of memory, but also the structure of memory, which is to say no real structure at all. Visually, though, the movie is of a piece; it's Sorrentino's eye that holds it together.

Sorrentino's coming-of-age is his most personal film yet, and a love letter to football, Maradona-era Naples and cinema.