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365 Days: This Day Reviews

Nobody’s watching 365 Days for any reason than to see Anna-Maria Sieklucka’s Polish ingenue, Laura, get railed by Michele Morrone’s alpha-roid mafioso, Massimo.

Full Review | Jun 7, 2022

365 Days: This Day distances itself from the sex-trafficking-as-courtship ethos of its predecessor, yet somehow emerges as an even more loathsome and vapid entity.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | May 31, 2022

Sex sells but this franchise has proven that it can also be incredibly boring.[Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: .5/5 | May 12, 2022

This film reverses the sex density of 365 Days, where there, it was the second half that sputters into fire.

Full Review | May 4, 2022

The first in this 365 Days franchise was a weirdly, sleazily entertaining male fantasy romp promoting the questionable notion that women crave domination, sexual and otherwise, and 365 Days: This Day is all that and less.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | May 3, 2022

This is not a real movie. This is a thirty minute soap opera padded out to two hours. Two hours!

Full Review | May 3, 2022

Less story than a 'no-plot just porn' fanfiction.

Full Review | May 2, 2022

365 Days: This Day is not only dumber, more problematic, and downright un-sexy, it is also incredibly lazy, bland and so supremely unengaging that you wonder if it will even make sense to the returning audiences.

Full Review | Original Score: 0.5/5 | May 1, 2022

...Filmed with the visual panache of a local tourism commercial, basically just stock footage of beautiful people in exotic locations to fill time between the raunch.

Full Review | Apr 30, 2022

Absent even the thin, barbed hook of an imprisoned woman wielding her sexual power, the new film doesn’t have much reason to exist.

Full Review | Apr 29, 2022

365 Days: This Day is barely a movie. Its the emotionally bankrupt id of late capitalism, a braindead miasma of choreographed sex.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 29, 2022

As toxic relationships go, this is as bad as it gets and this Polish movie wants audiences to celebrate it.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 29, 2022

This blandly horny sequel tries in vain to distance itself from its predecessor's icky foundations, and while its sub-telenovela plot is outrageous enough to be perversely entertaining, by any standard metric it's truly terrible stuff.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Apr 28, 2022

It’s piping hot trash.

Full Review | Apr 27, 2022

No, most audiences who tune into 365 Days: This Day are likely not seeking out female empowerment tales or coherent plots, but the disdain with which the film treats both its viewers and its star can’t help but grate.

Full Review | Original Score: D+ | Apr 27, 2022

s difficult as it might be to believe, it’s even worse than the first movie. But it goes down easier, because much of the first film’s ugly side has been smoothed away.

What you really need to know is that the sequel to 365 Days is just as full of sex montages set to pop music, includes a couple of scenes thatll raise an eyebrow, and has a standard of acting and writing that might charitably be described as appalling.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 27, 2022

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Netflix’s controversial Eurotrash sex franchise goes soft in 365 Days: This Day

Its sunglasses game is strong, though

by Oli Welsh

In June 2020, as a hot-and-bothered world fretted through a lockdown summer, Netflix slipped a Polish-Italian erotic drama called 365 Days into its algorithm. A softcore fantasy of yacht sex, thick accents, and troubling consent issues, it came across as a low-rent Fifty Shades of Grey : flashier, trashier, simultaneously tamer and more offensive, and much more inept and cheesy. An unequivocally terrible film, it was also an enormous hit. It went straight to No. 1 in Netflix’s top 10 chart and stayed there for 10 days, still one of the longest runs the service has seen.

Now we have a sequel, 365 Days: This Day , which features more sex (or at least more participants), more brooding, more expensive cars and clothes, more unintentional comedy, even less plot, and the same number of visible penises (zero). As difficult as it might be to believe, it’s even worse than the first movie. But it goes down easier, because much of the first film’s ugly side has been smoothed away. That’s a good thing — isn’t it? Well, that depends on why anyone was watching in the first place. To pick that apart, we need to revisit the original.

Based on the first of a trilogy of erotic novels by Polish author Blanka Lipińska, 365 Days follows a young woman, Laura (Anna-Maria Sieklucka), from Warsaw to Sicily, where she’s spotted and promptly kidnapped by Massimo (Michele Morrone), a glowering, chiseled, obscenely rich Mafia scion. It turns out Massimo has been obsessed with Laura since he observed her on a beach, through binoculars, the day his father was assassinated and he himself almost died. (The film doesn’t take time to explore why a bullet passing through his father’s body and into his own would carry such a lingering erotic charge for Massimo, but wow .)

Massimo says he will keep Laura captive for 365 days, enough time for her to fall in love with him. But while he desperately wants her and he’s used to taking whatever he wants, he promises to refrain from raping her. What a gentleman. The fiery Laura blazes back at him throughout her early captivity, but without the horror her situation would seem to demand. At the risk of spoilers, before the 365 days are up, they’re consensually going at it in a series of very vigorous, surprisingly vanilla sex scenes.

This grotesque, disquieting setup sparked a lot of conversation at the time . An early scene where Massimo wordlessly demands and receives oral sex from one of his employees carries a distinctly unpleasant flavor of sexual violence. The bland and largely kink-free nature of the rest of the romps is still colored by the coercion inherent in the film’s premise. The film was co-directed and co-written by women, and based on a book by a woman, but the male gaze dominates both the narrative and the camera’s leering presence.

Kidnapping as an established female sex fantasy, with its complex layers of control and consent, is too big and tricky a topic for this review. What 365 Days does is create a kind of aesthetic safe space for that fantasy. With its thin characters, bad acting, laughably threadbare plot, music-video direction, and sex that’s explicit only to a point, 365 Days is porn-but-not. It has neither the emotional stakes of actual drama nor the stigma of actual smut. You can laugh it off. (Perhaps this also explains why people choose to watch stuff like this even when it sits right next to the full-frontal nudity and explicit unsimulated sex of something like Gaspar Noé’s Love , which was also on Netflix for a while.)

All of these qualities are shared by the sequel 365 Days: This Day , except those that made the first film troubling but gave it its (few, wobbly) teeth. Adapted from the second of Lipińska’s books, This Day picks up where the first film left off — kind of. In one of the awkward lurches and clumsy, nonsensical elisions that are the unfortunate trademark of directors Barbara Białowąs and Tomasz Mandes, 365 Days ’ cliffhanger ending is unceremoniously brushed aside. Now it’s Laura and Massimo’s wedding day!

After some boning, it’s revealed that Laura lost the child she was carrying at the end of the first film, but never mind — more boning. Massimo is still withholding and controlling, but now within the context of a “normal” trophy-wife Mafia marriage — and there’s always the boning. Laura’s best friend Olga (Magdalena Lamparska, charming and garrulous, once again the standout performer by far) couples up with Massimo’s right-hand man Domenico (Otar Saralidze) to join in the boning fun.

Nothing else happens for the first half of this film. Squandering what narrative tension the first film had, and in no particular hurry to set up its own, This Day starts out as a limp, redundant frame for fantasy sex. In the second half, a telenovela-level melodrama comes to a reluctant boil. Massimo’s ex has a nefarious plan, Massimo has family he hasn’t mentioned, and Laura is visited by mysterious, hunky gardener Nacho, who wears a hat that literally says “cock” on it. It’s all very silly in a way that’s almost endearing, although it’s handled so sloppily that it can still become boring.

365 Days: This Day frequently slumps into a torpid haze of wheeling, slow-motion montages that don’t really distinguish between shots of sex, shopping, supercars, and heartwarming family dinners. The wealth-porn is as prominent as the porn-porn. There’s a carpet of numb Europop over the whole thing, some of it sung by Morrone himself. (One choice couplet: “I’m a little bit of a psycho / I’m driving you like a Lambo.”)

Defanged of the first film’s problematic premise, This Day is easier to enjoy as guilt-free camp. There are moments of ripe, tasteless abandon that are absolutely hilarious, intentionally or (more likely) not. The white bridal Lamborghini. The honeymoon game of sex golf, where Laura pole dances on the green’s flag, then spreads her legs to invite Massimo’s putt . The shackles that have “fuck me” embossed on them in gold. The extraordinary display of eyewear throughout, as Massimo and Laura mask their squinting pouts, constipated frowns, and grimacing sex faces in ever more extravagant assemblies of tinted glass. (Talk about 50 shades.)

There’s nothing like reality here, and certainly nothing like real sex. There’s isn’t much sex at all in the last half hour, as the plot, such as it is, gets down to business and sets up an ending that the inevitable third film will probably ignore. There are no stakes, and there’s little that’s offensive, except to the art and craft of cinema. It’s funny. It’s glossy. It’s a fantasy. It’s safe. It’s soft.

365 Days: This Day is now streaming on Netflix.

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Massimo is a member of the Sicilian Mafia family and Laura is a sales director. She does not expect that on a trip to Sicily trying to save her relationship, Massimo will kidnap her and give... Read all Massimo is a member of the Sicilian Mafia family and Laura is a sales director. She does not expect that on a trip to Sicily trying to save her relationship, Massimo will kidnap her and give her 365 days to fall in love with him. Massimo is a member of the Sicilian Mafia family and Laura is a sales director. She does not expect that on a trip to Sicily trying to save her relationship, Massimo will kidnap her and give her 365 days to fall in love with him.

• Barbara Bialowas
• Tomasz Mandes
• Tomasz Klimala
• Anna-Maria Sieklucka
• Michele Morrone
• Bronislaw Wroclawski
• 1.4K User reviews
• 59 Critic reviews
• 1 win & 5 nominations

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• Tomasz Biel
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• Trivia Writer Blanka Lipinska revealed that the shot where lead actor Michele Morrone spits into the private parts of the actress playing Laura during sexual intercourse was cut from prior versions of the film and was only re-instated after she asked for it to be put back in. She said it was "a very popular gesture in Poland" for couples.

Massimo : Are you lost, babygirl?

• Connections Featured in Alex Meyers: 365 Days is the worst movie I have ever seen... (2020)
• Soundtracks Don't Call Me Up Written by Mabel , Camille Purcell and Steve Mac Performed by Mabel

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• June 7, 2020 (United States)
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Is ‘365 Days’ Worth Watching? A Complete Review

By Epic Dope Staff

Updated: July 3, 2023

No Comments on Is ‘365 Days’ Worth Watching? A Complete Review

Every year, the disaster of Valentine’s day leaves a cluster of romantic comedies in its wake. 365 Days (also known as 365 dni ) is a film unlike these, known for its mature (read: erotic) love story. It has been adopted as her latest film by Polish writer and director Barbara Bialowas.

Acquired by Netflix after titillating the Polish box office into submission, it was seen by a record 1.6 million viewers on its first weekend, marking the best opening weekend for Polish cinema in 2020 so far. But, while Poland was entranced by the books’ success before the release of the film, will the film’s thrill be lost in translation for global viewers? Read on to find out.

1. Quick Review

365 days is a result of the adaptation of multiple novels stripped down to their most vital part for creating a single film . The result? A captivating experience littered with trashy sexual debauchery, overpowering melodrama, and, of course, dripping with high camp. It is a paradoxical situation to be in.

However, it is disturbingly engrossing with its costumes and sexual appeal, it is almost laughably poorly executed in pockets . While the narrative twists with frantic energy and half-baked story development , 365 days is immensely entertaining with sexual tension and an almost passionate, raw appeal.

2. Is it worth watching?

The influence of the Polish erotic novels is large in Bialowas’ film; the screen is saturated by luxurious costumes and locales, flitting from montages to shopping and makeovers to disturbing accounts of sexual intimidation and assault.

While the director has evidently made use of the film’s budget for costumes and toys, she has barely found time in the film to give it any semblance of a plot. Ironically, the film is so obsessed with the apparent atrocities of the flesh that it fails to reach a satisfying climax, without a hint of there being more to come (pun intended).

365 days tells the story of Massimo Torricelli (played by Michele Morrone), the newly-crowned heir to a major Sicilian criminal organization. Upon seeing successful Varsovian hotel sales director Laura Biel (played by Anna Maria Sieklucka) when she is on holiday in Sicily, he falls for her and decides to kidnap her.

When she comes to, Massimo tells Laura she is captive at his villa, and that she has 365 days to fall in love with him. If she doesn’t, he will let her go. While Laura initially resists Massimo’s womanizing ways, she gives in to his sexual game-playing and tensely teasing ways.

With the more time they spend, the more passion and sexual tension develop between the pair. When it boils over, Massimo and Laura find their relationship taking a new, unexplored route.

While Morrone suffers from his character’s one-dimensional sexual aggressiveness (which is suddenly buried when the film opts for a more traditionally romantic tone), he has a magnetic presence and a powerful charisma that the audience picks up off-screen .

Sieklucka’s and his somewhat killer chemistry prove to be the eye of the film’s storm. However, it is to be understood that these performers are not well known for their acting prowess, but simply for the basal fact that they are both extremely good-looking stars who pair each other well and look great naked .

Director Bialowas understands this, and so, portrays them as extremely passionate, with an animalistic appeal.

II. Music and Visuals

With renowned music producers Mateusz and Michal Sarapata spearheading this , the soundtrack is a blend of contemporary pop songs and lead actor Michele Morrone’s original compositions.

Morrone’s single Watch Me Burn was released in this film, after which he released his new single Dark Room independently, said to have been inspired by it. With songs entitled Hard For Me, Lost In Your Eyes , and Here she Comes Again, it is apparent that the film puts sex at the forefront, and the sexual innuendos just don’t seem to stop.

The high camp and glamour of this film ooze wealth and sex . The costumes build up the feeling reminiscent of the 90s erotic camp masterpieces Basic Instinct, Showgirls , or even Striptease .

This, paired with the morosely wooden delivery from Anna Maria Sieklucka in her plentiful nudity expected from her, often resulted in unintentionally comic over-sexualized moments.

3. Final Thoughts

Cinematography/Animation: F

Direction: C-

Despite the fact that 365 days have a female writer and director, the film’s female characters seem to project a sense of self-worth or lack thereof. This ultimately leads to countless problematic scenarios that feel extremely disturbing to watch in the wake of the #MeToo movement, almost as though the audience was complicit.

While Laura initially resists Massimo’s advances, she is apparently swayed by his rough teasing, physical intimidation, and sexual exploitation. Her façade falls when Bialowas encompasses her character with the common female stereotype of being charmed by a man with a large, er, bank balance.

Unlimited shopping trips and montages of designer handbags put the supposedly progressive film to shame with its use of stereotypes.

Still, Bialowas’ film will prove to be a titillating, engrossing, high camp spectacle if you’re willing to overlook the obvious and prominent challenges in the content.

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Common Sense Media Review

Sex domination fantasy is graphic and violent.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that 365 Days is a 2020 erotic film in Polish, Italian, and English (with English subtitles). Its popularity has raised the question on social media regarding whether the movie's graphic sex scenes record actors actually having sex. The story is based on the Polish trilogy 365 dni by…

Why Age 18+?

A man is drugged, stripped; photos are taken of him having sex with buxom woman.

"F--k," "s--t," "ass," "d--k," "piss," "hell," "damn," "balls," "scumbag," and "

A man's face is covered with blood when his father is shot. Gangsters discuss se

Cocaine is mentioned. A man is drugged and stripped, then photos are taken of hi

Any Positive Content?

Movie suggests that women are turned on by domineering and brutal men who take w

Film models a dynamic of women first resisting, then submitting, via Stockholm s

Sex, Romance & Nudity

A man is drugged, stripped; photos are taken of him having sex with buxom woman. Breasts shown. Wealthy man unzips his pants, demands oral sex from flight attendant on his private jet (seems to be forcing her, especially given that he's her employer, but later she's seen with hint of smile, suggesting she enjoyed being dominated). Photographs indicate a man has seemingly cheated on his girlfriend, but that is later called into question. Kidnap victim finds her kidnapper sleeping next to her shirtless, feels attracted to him. They get naked in shower. He asks why she's staring at his penis, if she wants to touch it. She touches his buttocks but leaves the shower. He grabs her by the neck. She is later forced onto an airplane, tied up in her seat. Her captor touches her nipple through her shirt, without permission, puts his hand into her pants. She seems aroused. A man throws a woman onto his bed, binds her hand and foot, has another woman give him oral sex in front of her. She's naked under her bathrobe; one breast shows. Kidnap victim seems to willingly submit to her captor; they have mutually pleasurable sex in many positions: oral sex, he kisses and touches her breasts, they alternate who's on top, her legs around his neck. He comes in from behind, spits on his hand, suggesting anal sex may be involved. No genitals shown. Sex against window of a high-rise, on deck of yacht. Describing her boyfriend's penis, Laura says "the devil" molded it.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k," "s--t," "ass," "d--k," "piss," "hell," "damn," "balls," "scumbag," and "wop."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

A man's face is covered with blood when his father is shot. Gangsters discuss sex trafficking of young girls. A gangster threatens a financial adviser. A kidnapper tells the woman he kidnapped that he's "going to give her a chance" to fall in love with him. A man warns the woman he has kidnapped "I can't be gentle. I'm not used to tolerating disobedience." A man who has kidnapped a woman and murdered people lectures a tied-up colleague who trafficked in young girls on ethics. He later kills the colleague. Kidnapper instructs his victim that she can defy him and make things difficult or she can "take part in an adventure that fate has given you." A kidnapped woman is carried kicking and screaming onto a private jet. A man touches a woman's nipple through her shirt, without permission, and puts his hand into her pants.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Cocaine is mentioned. A man is drugged and stripped, then photos are taken of him having sex with a woman. A woman is drugged and kidnapped. Adults drink alcohol to excess. Adults smoke cigarettes.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Positive Messages

Movie suggests that women are turned on by domineering and brutal men who take what they want.

Positive Role Models

Film models a dynamic of women first resisting, then submitting, via Stockholm syndrome, to violent and overpowering men.

Parents need to know that 365 Days is a 2020 erotic film in Polish, Italian, and English (with English subtitles). Its popularity has raised the question on social media regarding whether the movie's graphic sex scenes record actors actually having sex. The story is based on the Polish trilogy 365 dni by Blanka Lipinska. A handsome gangster glimpses a woman and then spends years searching the world for her. When he finds her, he kidnaps the woman, locks her away, and "gives" her a year to fall in love with him. Lots of lustful looks and touches precede all-out sex, including a scene in which he chains her to a bed while another woman gives him oral sex. No genitals are shown, but the movie offers many graphic sex scenes with bared breasts and bottoms, and a number of positions from the Kama Sutra and other sexual how-to manuals. While fans of titillation will find much to enjoy here, the message is a dangerous one: that when overpowering men are involved, women say "no" but mean "yes." A few murders are thrown in on the side, and language includes "f--k," "s--t," "ass," "d--k," "piss," "hell," "damn," and "wop." Characters smoke cigarettes and drink alcohol to excess. Cocaine is mentioned, as is sex trafficking of young girls. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (37)
• Kids say (74)

Based on 37 parent reviews

I LOVE WATCHING

Educational, what's the story.

In 365 DAYS, Massimo (Michele Morrone, a model, actor, and singer who contributed songs to the soundtrack) is a tall, handsome, and brooding Sicilian gangster whose father was shot in front of his eyes. At that moment, he glimpsed Laura (Anna Maria Sieklucka) and became obsessed with finding her and making her fall in love with him. When he locates her, instead of wooing her, he drugs and kidnaps her, imprisons her, and tells her she has 365 days to fall in love with him. If she doesn't, he will let her go. She struggles to escape and he violently stops her, at times putting his large hand gruffly around her neck to keep her from running. He ominously warns her, "Don't provoke me," and notes that he doesn't tolerate "disobedience," suggesting that in his view, a kidnap victim ought to buckle to his orders and desires. At the same time, he "gallantly" promises never to do anything sexual without her permission, and then puts his hand on her breast and later slips his hand down her pants while she's tied up. Laura is a bundle of contradictions herself, walking around naked to tease him but also adamantly resistant to his advances. She tries to escape but is thwarted by bodyguards and police on the take. Eventually, she gives in to her lust for the towering Massimo, suggesting that, for all their protestations, women just want to be dominated by gruff alpha males. The film ends abruptly with a planned, unexplained murder, paving the way for a sequel.

Is It Any Good?

Although weirdly entertaining in its own sleazy way, this is an adolescent boy's dream about what women want, a sexual fantasy to "prove" that women who say "no" really mean "yes." Poorly written and largely ridiculous in its attempt to portray human character (and in its blatant rip-off of Fifty Shades of Grey and nod to Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew), 365 Days will nevertheless titillate those patient enough to wade through terrible dialogue and senseless plot to get to the erotica. Given that Netflix deems two minutes of watching time an official "view," it's possible that many are skipping to erotic scenes without watching the self-important rot in between.

The gangster seemingly proves his nobility when he promises he'll never do anything without Laura's permission, but then promptly puts one hand on her breast and the other around her neck as she tries to writhe away. Uh, perhaps it's time to revisit the definition of "permission"? Most extraordinary and blatantly misogynist are sympathetic nods by Massimo's friends to how difficult Laura is, as if experienced and knowing men of the world are often forced to tolerate temperamental women, ignoring completely that Laura's contrariness isn't a sign of diva tendencies, but rather the normal response of someone trying to run from her captor. That Laura flaunts her sexuality in front of Massimo might imply she's asserting her power, but it reads as if the movie believes women are teases who want to "succumb" to powerful men, providing ammunition for men who argue that women just want to be treated roughly and dominated. At least the 1993 film Indecent Proposal used money to incentivize a woman's sexual surrender to unwanted male attention rather than suggesting that women are turned on by domineering and brutal men who take what they want.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about why 365 Days has become so popular despite its less-than-stellar script, editing, plot, and direction. Do you think the depiction of pretty people having sex is enough to generate such popularity, or is something else at work?

Netflix subscribers in the United States have access to this film. Do you think it would be as popular if people had to go to the trouble of downloading and paying for it? Why or why not?

Do you think erotica has value? Do you think it's important that only adults have access to such materials? Why or why not?

Movie Details

• In theaters : February 7, 2020
• On DVD or streaming : June 7, 2020
• Cast : Michele Morrone , Anna Maria Sieklucka , Magdalena Lamparska
• Director : Barbara Bialowas. Tomasz Mandes
• Studio : Netflix
• Genre : Drama
• Run time : 114 minutes
• MPAA rating : NR
• Last updated : February 18, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

Suggest an Update

What to watch next.

Like Water for Chocolate

Indecent Proposal

A Star Is Born

Romance movies, romantic comedies.

Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Next 365 Days’ on Netflix, the Turgid Third Movie in the Polish Sex Saga

Where to Stream:

• The Next 365 Days

It Will Only Take You One Hour to Fall in Love with 'Industry'

The problematics: 'the joy of sex' at 40, a movie that paradoxically offers little sex and even less joy, 'industry' season 3 episode 2 recap: urinetown, natalie portman's steamy 'lady in the lake' mirror sex scene takes us through the looking glass.

It slogs on: The Next 365 Days is the third movie in the turgid erotic Polish/shot-in-Italy/mostly-English-language mess of a Netflix franchise, and considering that ending, it’s probably not the last. So one assumes they’re cheap enough to make and successful enough in viewership numbers to justify their existence, in spite of the glaringly obvious fact that they’re objectively abominable in their barely written, ethically queasy, utterly vacuous, theoretically “sexy” kind of way. They’re quite distinctive in their badness, putting them in a subcategory below prurient dreck like the Fifty Shades series, post- Basic Instinct preposterous thrillers and Nickelback videos. So mayhaps it’s wise to divorce analysis of these movies from the whole of the filmmaking art, and stick to intra-franchise comparisons: Is it possible that The Next 365 Days is even worse than the previous two?

THE NEXT 365 DAYS : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Before we get too deep here (phrasing), we need to recap the ending of 365 Days: This Day : The marital “bliss” between rich and rapey gangster Massimo (Michele Morrone) and quasi-slave-wife Laura (Anna-Maria Sieklucka) went all topsy-turvy when she thought he was cheating on her – but it turns out the man she saw fornicating with another woman was actually Massimo’s (gasp) twin brother. She GTFO’d and started hanging out with another hunky slab of muscle named Nacho (Simone Sussina), who masqueraded as Massimo’s gardener but was actually the son of Massimo’s gangster rival. You may recall that Laura and Nacho never had sex, because their sex scenes were just her PRIMAL FANTASIES. And then the movie concluded with an incomprehensible shootout in which Massimo’s twin died and Laura took a bullet to the abdomen. Consider that cliff totally hanged!

In other words, I’m here to inform you that the end of This Day was not, as you may have initially suspected, a hallucination.

So, on to The Next : We pick up as Massimo and his men meet with Nacho and his men and they glower at each other for a while before gabbing about continuing an ugly, bloody gang war. They come to a truce, and if this isn’t immediately prevalent due to the garbled, confusing ESL dialogue, one eventually figures it out, since there are no more shootouts or assassinations in the movie. Massimo visits a grave – and it’s not Laura’s!!!1!1!!!!1! It’s his brother’s. He goes home and Laura is very much alive, and also horny. (Perhaps you’ve noticed that everyone in this movie series is permanently horny.) But Massimo reminds her that the doctor says no schtupping until she’s all healed up, so instead of getting a sex scene after the first five minutes of the movie, we have to wait five more.

I’m already blowing my word count summing up the first five minutes, but that’s really not an issue, because the remaining 108 are a plot wasteland. OK, so Laura and Massimo bang, but then the marriage hits the rocks and she throws herself into “work” – you may recall, in the previous movie Massimo bought her a clothing-design company which she never bothered to have anything to do with until now. She and her bestie Olga (Magdalena Lamparska) hang out. In lieu of rutting with Massimo, she enjoys soggy Nacho fantasies, just like I do when I’m on a diet! (That’s the last of the too-easy Nacho jokes, promise.) Massimo goes to gangster parties with coke and hookers, and I think he remains faithful; it’s hard to tell when you’re watching a random collection of shots of bare chests and butts and breasts in various iterations of sexual congress. Laura and Olga go to Lagos for a fashion thingy and wouldn’t you know it, Nacho is f—ing there. Is this COINCIDENCE, or just FATE? Moot point, because either way, Laura’s at a crossroads – does she commit her genitals to this gangster or that other gangster? Who will she choo-choo-choose? NO SPOILERS.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: They should’ve made 50 50 Shades movies (they still could!), and they should make 365 365 Days movies.

Performance Worth Watching: [We’re sorry, the number you have dialed has been disconnected. Please check the number and dial again.]

Memorable Dialogue: This is the fun part! A choice monologue from Laura: “When I got shot, our relationship almost died with me. I was trying to save it, and you, you were speculating and diving into your dark limbo, which I was not allowed to enter. Now I’m in my own limbo.”

Please allow me to translate: Their relationship would’ve died if she had died, no question about it. She was trying to save either her life or their relationship, not sure which, although they’re very much connected, so I guess it doesn’t matter. He dived into a dark limbo, which is like a pool with a hard plastic cover that Massimo put on it after he dived into it, because Laura subsequently couldn’t dive into it. And now she has her own pool! And married people should be sharing a dark-limbo pool, not diving into their own individual dark-limbo pools.

Sex and Skin: The usual frequent softcore one-on-ones, but this movie throws in an orgy or two to spice the broth. Still no schlongs in the frame, though!

Our Take: Talk about your dark-limbo pools. If ever a movie was a metaphorical dark-limbo pool, it’s The Next 365 Days . The latest chapter in the quaggy eroto-saga of Laura and Massimo is DOA nearly all the way – “nearly” because it drops in a real hell of a hoot of a howler of a third-act dream sequence that’s a brief bit of audacity before resuming the movie’s dreary cycle of montages, Olga’s godawful comic relief, ponderous images of Laura brooding and smarmy-smeary sex scenes, all rife with mondo-mutilated English dialogue and set to an incessant and interminable downtempo dreck-rock soundtrack. (Hot tip: Turn on the subtitles, and subject yourself to the dismal song lyrics!)

So, you may ask, what makes it any different to the previous 365 Days es? At least the first movie’s gross misogyny made us feel something – most likely sick to our stomachs – and 365 Days: This Day was laughably nutty with its lobotomized soap opera twists. The Next 365 Days is a flat-out crushing, crashing, smashing, staggering bore. If you’re here for the sex scenes – and who isn’t? – let it be known that directors Barabara Bialowas and Tomasz Mandes could’ve cut in the same schtup-sequences from the previous movies and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. (Did the light glint off Sussina’s buttcrack hair so poetically in the last movie as it does here? Probably!) The movie trudges along slowly and repetitively until reaching an unconclusion that might be frustrating if we were at all invested in Laura’s inner conflict. Netflix sure seems to be banking on piqued interest for The Next 365 Days After the Last 365 Days , because this one sure leaves us hanging and dangling like, I dunno, like something that hangs and dangles that these movies make us think about, but never shows us.

Our Call: Yes, The Next 365 Days is worse than the other two movies. Hard to believe, but it’s true. SKIP IT with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com .

Stream  The Next 365 Days on Netflix

• Stream It Or Skip It

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365 Days Ending Explained: What Happened And What's Next

Warning: SEVERAL SEXY SPOILERS are waiting for you in this article, so be sure to come back once you've watched 365 Days to completion!

365 Days has caused quite the uproar since it was released on Netflix on June 7. The Polish / Italian film had eyeballs poppin' all over the world for its intense sex scenes and has had plenty of detractors because of how we get to those sex scenes in the first place. The film is based on the Polish book of the same name by author Blanka Lipinska, and follows mob boss Massimo Torricelli and his love Laura Biel... who's been kidnapped by Massimo and given a year to fall in love with him, with him saying he'll let her go if she doesn't reciprocate his feelings in that time.

Yeah. It. Is. A . Lot . But, many people fell hard for the tale of mobsters, kidnapping and very explicit-looking yacht sex, so let's just break down what happened at the end of the sultry saga that is 365 Days, and take a look at the next book in the novel series to see what might be coming up in a possible sequel.

What Happened At The End Of 365 Days?

As if there were truly any doubt, Massimo ends up getting his wish shortly before the end of the film. After sending Laura back to Poland when he needs to get her away from some mob business (which does not make Laura happy), he goes to get her back. She's mad at him, he turns his sex appeal up to 11 , they anger bang up against the window of her super fancy high-rise apartment, and Laura tells him she doesn't need the full 365 days, because she's in love with him. Yay!

With that detail settled (apparently, only two months past the kidnapping date), Massimo proposes marriage the next day (after slyly slipping an unfortunately small ring onto a sleeping Laura's finger), to which she agrees. The lovebird kidnapper and kidnapee head back to Italy, and Laura convinces Massimo to let her best bud Olga (Magdalena Lamparska) come to the secret nuptials. When Olga arrives, Laura confesses to her that she's pregnant (no surprise with all that naked yacht time ) and they take a joyful trip to shop for Laura's wedding gown. But, trouble is afoot.

While heading back to Massimo's compound, and talking about horny Italian men, Laura takes a break to call her intended. As they talk, Massimo's right hand man, Mario (Bronislaw Wroclawski), who's being driven back to Massimo's, gets his own phone call. But, instead of being good news, Mario's told that "they" are going to kill Laura, and not just sometime soon, but right freakin' now. Mario then tries to call Massimo, but he's on the phone with Laura. When Mario finally arrives, the call between Laura and Massimo has gone dead after her car enters a tunnel, the look Mario gives Massimo tells him that something is very, very wrong, and that's when our kidnapping mobster with a... heart of gold falls to his knees with tears in his eyes.

How Close To The Book Ending Is 365 Days?

I've got news for you. I'm good enough at the language I was raised with to write full sentences, but there is no way I can read Polish. It's good, then, that there are plenty of other people who can, and according to them, 365 Days the movie ends in much the same way that 365 dni the novel does. Even better, each book picks up right after the other, so that cliffhanger we were treated to is resolved quickly at the start of the second book, which is titled either This Day or That Day depending on the translation you land upon.

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According to Newsweek , a Polish language Instagram Q&A with Anna Maria Sieklucka and Magdalena Lamparska (Laura and Olga, respectively) confirmed a few weeks back that the sequel for 365 Days was given the greenlight and would have begun filming in August. Obviously, those plans have now been put on hold, and the stars didn't know when filming would be able to begin. Luckily, though, there's still plenty of material from each of the sure to be sex-filled sequel novels which could be pulled together for at least one more movie, whenever they do get to go into production.

What Could Happen In The 365 Days Sequel?

Well, this is the million dollar question right now, isn't it? As a reminder, if you're not a fan of spoilers , I would suggest backing out now , because I'm about to blow your mind with some details about what might be coming in the sequel, according to the book series.

OK... as you may have suspected, Laura and her baby survive the attempt on her life (along with Olga, by the way), but, when you're embroiled in steamy a romance with one of the heads of the mafia, you cannot expect life to sail along smoothly. The second book, apparently, will give us some additional time with secondary characters, but will also introduce more mob intrigue and (Dunh, dunh, DUNNNHHHH) Massimo's freakin' evil British twin, Adriano! What. The. Actual. FFFFFFFFF?

Even better (or, worse, depending on how you personally rate these shocking developments ), the romance at the center of the the story will take quite a hit when Laura, wait for it... gets kidnapped by another hot mafia don! And, he's also super sexy and taken with our Laura! Guess what, you guys? Pregnant Laura "falls in love" (heavy on the quotes there, as far as I'm concerned) with this asshole, too! So, we'll be in the middle of peak mob boss love sandwich by the time a 365 Days sequel wraps up, if they decide to follow the plot of the second book.

I'd tell you some of the details that O Magazine spilled about the third and final book in the series, titled Another 365 Days , but I'm going to spare you and wait to see just how close the planned second film hews to the second book in the series, so we don't get ahead of ourselves. Are you still excited at the possibility of a 365 Days sequel? Let us know in the poll below!

This poll is no longer available.

Covering The Witcher, Outlander, Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias and a slew of other streaming shows, Adrienne Jones is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend, and started in the fall of 2015. In addition to writing and editing stories on a variety of different topics, she also spends her work days trying to find new ways to write about the many romantic entanglements that fictional characters find themselves in on TV shows. She graduated from Mizzou with a degree in Photojournalism. 

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‘The Next 365 Days’ Review: For Masochists Only – and Not the Sexy Kind

The third go-round in Netflix's moronic Polish bonkfest reduces a once proudly yuck premise to a limp love triangle between deeply boring hotties.

By Jessica Kiang

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In a shocking abrogation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights — at least as it pertains to film critics — a mere 114 days has elapsed between Barbara Białowas and Tomasz Mandes ‘ two sequels to their 2020 Netflix -busting softcore phenom, “365 Days.” So just a few scant months after “365 Days: This Day” left us in a swirl of Steadicam and a hail of bullets, here’s “ The Next 365 Days ,” plunging the series’ fans, and its contractually obliged observers, back into the lightly kink-dusted erotic adventures of Laura (Anna-Maria Sieklucka) and Massimo (Michele Morrone), the streaming era’s favorite oversexed, underclad rape-apologist couple. What a time to be alive.

In truth, the shortness of that window is a blessing, given the third film optimistically expects us to remember what happened in the second — beyond there being an evil twin, a blisteringly attractive gardener called Nacho (Simone Sussina) and a comical climactic shootout — and therefore to be mildly taken in by the fake-out beginning. Once again we’re teased with tiny ninny Laura’s possible death, as Massimo, her hulking mafioso kidnapper-husband, grieves at a gravestone obscured by his ludicrously broad shoulders (straining at a jacket which, as ever with Piotr Koncki’s costume design, walks a dangerous line between being tailored to a sculptural tightness, and simply being a bit too small). Meanwhile Olga (Magdalena Lamparska), a pair of designer sunglasses with a person attached, sobs about missing her bestie Laura while trying on a wedding dress: She’s is now engaged to Domenico (Otar Saralidze), Massimo’s consigliere, do keep up.

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Nacho, who absconded with Laura, aka “baby girl” (still ick), in episode two and was then revealed to be the scion of another Sicilian gangster clan, attends a post-bloodbath parlay with Massimo. The two alpha-smokeshow rivals glower at each other, the ridges of their bestubbled jaws twitching like fissures on the unstable slopes of Mt. Vesuvius just before it engulfed Pompeii. The prospect of this rumbling feud erupting into violence is a tantalizing one: Given the physical fitness and gorgeousness of all concerned it would be devastating but also extremely hot, rather like Abercrombie declaring war on Fitch.

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Sadly, no such conflagration occurs. Instead, late on, in the series’ one truly surprising and cherishable moment, Białowas and Mandes finally give the horned-up audience what it really wants: Nacho and Massimo kissing. Not to suggest that these few seconds of guy-on-guy fantasy action (1:29:10 if you just want to skip straight there) justify the existence of the whole trilogy, but it sure does put all the coy titillations of the movie’s hetero lovemaking in perspective. Except for a weird nightclub/gimp-mask sequence, and this imaginary threesome, the sex scenes this time are tediously vanilla, and nothing holds a candle to episode two’s putting-green orgasm for sheer comedy.

Because, of course, the two musclebound thirst-traps are not mourning Laura at all. Baby girl and, more importantly, baby girl’s libido have recovered from her gunshot wound, and now she’s ready to get back to full-time writhing duties atop her brooding hubs. The only wrinkle is that occasionally, while engaged in one of her curiously anhydrous romps with Massimo, she fantasizes about Nacho. And who can blame her? As fine as Morrone is, he’s only given “smolder” to play, where Sussina gets to flash his dazzling smile while also fixing the camera with a gaze that could crisp up a rosemary and black olive focaccia at twenty paces.

These are the astronomical stakes of “The Next 365 Days”: Should Laura be with Massimo or Nacho? One wants to ball her in the Mediterranean, the other wants “to meditate with her in Bali.” Tomasz Mandes and Mojca Tirš, co-writing with the books’ author Blanka Lipinska, already distanced “This Day” from the original film’s queasy rapiness, but now seem eager to engineer a full 180. Given the ultra-sensitive, ribbed-for-her-pleasure alternative offered by Nacho, also a mafia boss but one who surfs and has unambiguously consensual candlelit beachside sex, Laura is finally working out that maybe the guy who kidnapped and sexually enslaved her and now jealously monitors her every move is not the prince she Stockholmed herself into believing he was. It took three movies, a failing mafia marriage, getting shot, a lost pregnancy, a car crash and the patient, undying affections of an even hotter, even richer guy, but whatever. Go feminism.

It’s not just the plotting that feels bone-tired this time out. The design departments seem underslept too: the outfits are ho-hum, even those at the atelier Laura sometimes remembers she runs. The al fresco dining areas and nightclub scenes during which Olga’s evident full-blown alcoholism is constantly played for klutzy laughs, are entirely interchangeable. And once you’ve seen one dramatic sky skidding off the infinity pool of a modernist villa at dusk, you’ve seen ’em all. Furthermore, we’re used to the oddly inflected, non-native English dialogue (“The plane is to your disposal,” “This white shit replaced me”) but now even the bikini-waxed images from franchise DP Bartek Cielica come across as gauzily inattentive. During one would-be dramatic confrontation between Laura and Massimo, it’s hard not to be distracted by the handprints on the glass rooftop railing between them that glint greasily in the lens flare.

Indeed, the only contributors who don’t appear completely tapped out by the end of “The Next 365 Days” are those with arguably the most reason to be. Composers Patryk Kumór and Dominic Buczkowski-Woytaszek pen a Herculean 25 original soft-rock ballads for the soundtrack, many of which play out for a couple of minutes or more, because that’s how much of this movie takes place in slo-mo montage. Granted, the songs are 100% indistinguishable and all the lyrics appear written by the same algorithm that generates the dialogue: Who knows what to make of a sex scene scored to a gravel-voiced chorus of “Fuck society?” Still, 25!

But just because almost everyone’s exhausted by this crummy cash-cow franchise, doesn’t mean the franchise is exhausted in turn. The hope that “The Next 365 Days” will be the last “365 Days” merely because it’s based on the final book is a slim one, especially given how it ends, on a question left infuriatingly dangling, with only a wailing rawk crescendo and a deranged camera doing infinity loops around the two stars for resolution. “I need more time,” Laura husks repeatedly, to Nacho, to Massimo, to Olga and to the warm wind tousling her hair. Though she’s referring to her deeply uninvolving romantic dilemma, it’s hard not to hear her speaking with the wistful voice of the Netflix accountancy department, as they, and they alone, offer up a prayer that there might be many more “365 Days” to come.

Reviewed on Netflix, Aug. 19, 2022. Running time: 114 MIN. (Original title: "Kolejne 365 Dni")

• Production: (Poland) A Netflix release of an Ekipa, Open Mind One production. Producers: Ewa Lewandowska, Tomasz Mandes, Maciej Kawulski.
• Crew: Directors: Barbara Białowas, Tomasz Mandes. Screenplay: Mojca Tirš, Blanka Lipińska, Tomasz Mandes, based on the book series by Lipińska. Camera: Bartek Cielica. Editor: Marcin Drewnowski. Music: Patryk Kumór, Dominic Buczkowski-Woytaszek.
• With: Anna-Maria Sieklucka, Michele Morrone, Simone Susinna, Magdalena Lamparska, Otar Saralidze, Karolina Pisarek, Ewa Kasprzyk, Dariusz Jacubowski. (English, ​​Polish, Italian dialogue)

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