The Little - Hours

The story is set in motion when the convent’s handsome, young, and perpetually terrified handyman, Massetto (Dave Franco), is forced to flee after being caught in an affair with the powerful Lord Bruno’s (Nick Offerman) wife. Seeking refuge, Massetto ends up at the convent, where a friendly local priest, Father Tommasso (John C. Reilly in a dual role as both Mother Superior and the priest—a deliberate, absurdist choice), suggests he hide there by pretending to be a deaf-mute gardener named “Brother Alexander.” The logic, as Father Tommasso explains, is that a deaf-mute can neither hear the nuns’ confessions nor gossip about them, posing no threat to their vows of chastity.

Upon its release, The Little Hours received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised its originality, its fearless cast, and its ability to find fresh, subversive comedy in a well-worn historical setting. It holds a high approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While not a major box office hit, it quickly gained a cult following for its irreverent spirit and quotable dialogue. The Little Hours

Released in 2017, The Little Hours is a unique and uproarious comedy that defies easy categorization. Directed and written by Jeff Baena, the film takes the bare-bones narrative framework from the first story of the third day of Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century masterpiece, The Decameron , and injects it with a distinctly modern, foul-mouthed, and stoner-comedy sensibility. The result is a film that feels both ancient and anarchic, a period piece where nuns gossip like mean girls, curses fly with abandon, and the sacred and the profane collide in a convent walled off from the Black Death-ravaged world outside. The story is set in motion when the