I Can Quit Whenever I Want

Pietro Zinni is a neurobiologist whose research grant is not renewed when his university faces budget cuts. Faced with few prospects and needing an income, he puts his scientific training to criminal use. He designs a synthetic drug that does not yet appear on the list of banned substances, and he recruits former colleagues, all highly qualified researchers now scraping by in jobs far below their abilities, to help him make and sell it. The operation brings money and status quickly, but holding together a group of strong personalities proves its own problem. The Italian comedy was directed by Sydney Sibilia, who wrote the screenplay with Valerio Attanasio and Andrea Garello. It was his first feature, and he later returned to the same characters in two sequels, released in 2017, before making Rose Island in 2020 and Mixed by Erry in 2023. Edoardo Leo plays Pietro, with Valeria Solarino, Valerio Aprea, Paolo Calabresi, Stefano Fresi and Lorenzo Lavia among the cast.

Produced by Domenico Procacci and Matteo Rovere for RAI Cinema, Fandango and Ascent Film, the film was made for about two million dollars and released in February 2014. It runs one hundred minutes. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7 out of 10 from around ten thousand votes, and on TMDB it has a 7.4 out of 10 from roughly 1,860 votes, indicating a modest but widely shared level of approval from viewers.