A story so nuts it could only be true, Pablo Trapero's "The Clan" is the second of two heavily Scorsese-influenced tales of real-life gangsterism to crop up in Venice this year. But it's a superior film to Scott Cooper's "Black Mass," in its examination of the mechanics of tribalism and loyalty within an organised criminal enterprise, and it brought Trapero the Silver Lion for Best Director. That award is somewhat surprising, as the film feels more slick and capable than necessarily hugely inspired, but the sensationalist story it tells, and its fascinating setting in Argentina mere moments after the 1983 collapse of the military dictatorship, more than compensate. Best of all, the film is about the wider society of the time, and the political corruption and ruthlessness that lingered like a hangover to mar the nascent democracy, but it is also the incredible story of a single family -- the "clan" of the title -- and so it has both sprawl and...
