THERE'S STILL TOMORROW eclipsed BARBIE at the 2023 Italian box office. How? I can only presume Paola Cortellesi's black-and-white, darkly comedic directorial debut about an abused housewife quietly plotting her escape struck a chord with audiences whose mothers and grandmothers experienced this tumultuous post-WWII Italy.

In the Rome of 1946, American soldiers patrol the streets. Whispers of a post-Mussolini republic, to be represented by more than just husbands, are now advertised with incendiary "Vote now!" posters. Pessimistic minds feel uncertain. The optimists see opportunity.

Somewhere in the middle is where Delia (Cortellesi) lies. The matriarch tends to the needs of her family: the volatile, abusive husband Ivano (Valerio Mastandrea), his bedridden bulldog of a father Ottorino (Giorgio Colangeli), daughter Marcella (Romana Maggiora Vergano), who radiates both puppy-dog love and fiery opinions, and a pair of bickering brothers whom, Delia says, have inherited their temperament from their father and grandfather.

Each morning sun barely crests over the horizon before Delia sustains Ivan's slap to the face, hairpin-triggered by whatever error she's made. Cortellesi's approach to this violence is to pair it with dance, giving it a relationship of familiarity. This marriage is a performance and regardless of its toxicity, both Ivano & Delia know their roles within it.

However, Delia's been quietly plotting, saving some money aside. And as the republic begins to rumble towards birth, an old flame makes his intentions known and Delia witnesses her daughter begin to go down a similar romantic track, the powder keg begins to overflow. The explosion is inevitable.

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