Identities are an elusive thing. While having a fixed identity gives each of us the cognitive ability to function as humans within a society, it also ends up confining us to live lives based upon the limits of who we are; or, as Adam Leon poses in his new film–Italian Studies–who we think we are.

Originally premiering at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival and releasing in theaters and on-demand this Friday, Italian Studies explores how we live our everyday lives based on the stories we tell ourselves.

Adam Leon’s new film–which he wrote and directed with his film’s muse, Vanessa Kirby–stars Kirby as a nameless woman walking around New York City. She’s beautiful but very clearly suffers from severe memory loss. She doesn’t know who she is, whether or not she eats meat, or even if she’s Jewish or not. She doesn’t know where she’s supposed to go but does have the feeling that she’s supposed to be looking for a girl.

Essentially, that’s the outline of the story. Leon and Kirby conceived Italian Studies based on the simple idea of what would a film be like about a woman wandering around New York with no recollection of who she is. So, don’t expect a conventional plot-driven movie here. A more “genre” version of this film would have Kirby needing to remember who she is against some sort of arbitrary ticking clock plot device to make for a thrilling movie.

That’s not to say that Leon and Kirby don’t create an intriguing film here. Italian Studies uses the mystery surrounding Kirby and her character in a suspenseful way. The more characters that she meets (a group of highschoolers become the main supporting cast) as well as what we learn of her backstory (and the meaning behind “Italian Studies”), the deeper the film’s core theme and questions become. It’s a mystery-filled arthouse movie that’s definitely experimental in nature, channeling major “neo-realist” vibes that are likely very aware of the films of John Cassavettes.

For a movie like this to work, it all comes down to whether or not Kirby can pull off the highwire act of being intriguing enough to an audience while only being able to play dazed and confused. And yet, she’s alluring and magnetic. Coming off of her last film, 2020’s devastating Pieces of a Woman (which earned her an Oscar nomination), Kirby proves that she can hold down the center of a film with nothing more than her instincts and enchantment.

Italian Studies is an intriguing, dreamy, and altogether hypnotic film that stands as one of the best new films that you can watch in this early part of the year. Vanessa Kirby is someone you won’t soon forget.

1 hour 21 minutes. ‘Italian Studies’ is in theaters and on-demand this Friday, January 14th.