The most terrifying grin you’ll see at the movies this year doesn’t belong to the Joker or Pennywise. It’s affixed to the face of Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister of Italy, as portrayed by Toni Servillo in Loro, the new film from Paolo Sorrentino.

Berlusconi's grin is clownish and rictus-like, and he wields it as a tool of seduction. Whether he’s trying to woo a senator or a dewy young woman in a short skirt, his smile floats through this fizzy, caustic satire like the Cheshire Cat. You get so distracted by it, you don’t feel his claws sinking into your flesh.

The disclaimer that opens Sorrentino's film insists that Loro (Italian for “them”) is a work of fiction, inspired by the true story of the media magnate who became the most powerful man in Italy. But it’s a thin disguise.

The details of Berlusconi’s attempts to return to politics after being ousted in 2006, his enormous ego and vanity, and the infamous bacchanals he participated in are all here—and through Servillo’s impeccable performance, the underlying desperation rises to the surface, overtaking the copious amounts of naked flesh and the slavish worship of wealth that's on display.

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Loro is currently open in theaters nationwide. See all of our movie times at the EverOut Movie Times page.