‘Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness’ Review: Johnny Depp’s Broad, Busy Modigliani Biopic

variety.com:

Guy Lodge Film Critic Celebrated in time for his distinctively lanky, almond-eyed interpretations of the human form, the Italian painter and sculptor Amedeo Modigliani died in 1920 at the age of just 35, tubercular and destitute and celebrated for very little indeed.

At 61, Johnny Depp has both handily outlived Modigliani and outranked him in terms of antemortem celebrity. Yet there’s more than a twinge of empathy for that most irresistible of archetypes — the great, iconoclastic artist under-appreciated in his own time — running through “Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness,” an ostensibly free-spirited Modigliani biopic that marks the embattled star’s first directorial outing in nearly 30 years.

Broad in tone and narrow in scope, the film is in thrall to the idea of creating art outside mainstream financial and aesthetic models, though its structure and outlook are not unfamiliar.

Often jovial despite its tragic true-life trappings, and considerably more accessible than its unwieldy full title suggests, “Modi” is likely to draw distributor interest in Europe, where Depp’s career has taken less of a hit in recent years than it has across the pond. (The film had its premiere in the main competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival.) Elsewhere, it’s a marginal proposition — though still sure to be more widely seen than “The Brave,” Depp’s first feature as a director, which was swiftly memory-holed after its 1997 Cannes debut. “Modi” is certainly more accomplished than that ill-starred vanity project, and perhaps benefits from Depp’s restraint in remaining behind the camera this time, with Italian star Riccardo Scamarcio’s charismatic turn in the title role the film’s liveliest asset.