Angels Of Evil review

Charismatic biopic documenting the highs and lows of one of Italy's most famous gangsters

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This breathless biopic from director Michele Placido (Romanzo Criminale) chronicles the rise and fall of Renato Vallanzasca, a notorious Milanese gangster in the ’70s and ’80s who’s serving several life sentences.

Loosely based on two of Vallanzasca’s own books, it tears through his career in a flurry of bank robberies, kidnappings and prison breaks, with a commanding performance from a charismatic yet volatile Kim Rossi Stuart.

But the screenplay – the work of six writers – offers little psychological insight or socio-political context for its subject’s crime sprees.