La Strada (1954) is a hard act to follow for sure. Fellini's follow-up feature does surprisingly well nonetheless, just don't expect another masterpiece. Kinda struggling to find its rhythm and mood in the first act, it picks up speed and gains cohesion later on, with the extended party scene in the middle foreshadowing the excess and fly-on-the-wall perspective the director would later depict in La Dolce Vita (1960). It also takes a while for the drama to pay off only to work its way up to a quite touching conclusion eventually. Overall a somewhat disjointed effort that feels like three different movies that just won't blend together all that well. Two of these are pretty fucking good though!