Amanda

Friendless, single, and stubborn twenty-something Amanda returns from Paris to her family’s wealthy home in Turin, where she obsessively sets out to reignite a relationship with an agoraphobic childhood acquaintance she barely remembers, in the debut film from writer/director Carolina Cavalli. —M.G.

AMANDA hilariously follows its titular antihero, a privileged woman in her mid-20s who has struggled to make human connections her entire life. Upon returning to her family home after a stint in Paris, Amanda fights with her older sister and discovers her mother has forbidden their housekeeper—Amanda’s only friend—from spending time with her. With no prospects for friendship or romance, Amanda submits to her mother’s request to visit her best friend’s daughter Rebecca. In Rebecca, Amanda finds her antisocial match and naturally decides they must become best friends. With confrontational wit and effortless style, this film is a modern character study that champions its young protagonist, warts and all, and finds humor in the fleeting, sometimes obligatory, nature of friendship. —C.F.