“Benedetta” is exceptional for layering themes that construct multiple flashpoints of modern culture, while chronicling a mercurial yet touching love story.
You could say director Paul Verhoeven specializes in the field of blasphemy, at least in the global sense. The venerable director, now 83, has made a career of being provocative, sometimes with luminous sex ("Basic Instinct"), sometimes with unrestrained violence and gore ("Starship Troopers"), sometimes with uncomfortable subject matter ("Black Book," "Elle"), sometimes with campy, questionable taste ("Hollow Man"), or often, some combination of all of the above ("Showgirls").
Over the summer, it seemed as if moviegoing might return to "normal." With COVID-19 cases on the decline and state restrictions lifted, indoor theaters reopened.