Dir - Rasmus Merivoo
Overall: GOOD
The goofy Estonian fantasy comedy Kratt takes its folkloric title creature into a digital age where bored kids and hippy community groups are attached to their cell phones, plus a possessed grandma wreaks havoc on a small town during summer break. As far as a premise goes for supernatural high-jinks, writer/director Rasmus Merivoo is trekking down the right avenue and he keeps a ridiculous tone throughout where everybody playing it straight just makes it that much more amusing. For something so silly though, Merivoo's script bites off a lot and arguably more than it needs to. We bounce between several characters that frequently interject with each other, but it makes for a convoluted scenario that is uneven on occasion. This to say that some set pieces are more hilarious than others, with certain characters coming off as ill-defined, particularity Ivo Uukkivi as a clumsy governor whose eventual suicidal mopiness is never made convincing. Even with an unnecessary drawn-out ending in slow-motion, there is enough inventiveness here to admire, plus any kid-centered adventure with uncomfortable gore is bound to garnish some deserving chuckles.
Dir - Filip Jan Rymsza
Overall: MEH
After spending several years on Orson Welles' final project The Other Side of the Wind and its accompanying documentary They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, Polish filmmaker Filip Jan Rymsza returned to the director's chair with the English-language Mosquito State, (Komar). It recalls the famed body horror work of David Cronenberg as well as his 2002 psychological oddity Spider, focusing on an aloof outcast that becomes host to a swarm of mosquitos for reasons that are never made clear. In fact little is crystalized here from a narrative perspective since Rymsza and Mario Zermeno's script exclusively focuses on such an eccentric and unrelatable Wall Street trader as its protagonist. Beau Knapp exhibits textbook level autism and Asperger's Syndrome in his portrayal, failing to make eye contact with people, aggressively delivering his nerdy dialog about complex financial systems and insect ecology, having the courting skills of a ridiculed social outcast, and looking disturbing with an increasing amount of swollen bug bites morphing his face into a garish freakshow. Unfortunately, is character is so nebulously strange that the equally impenetrable plot becomes that much more frustrating to endure, since there is nothing here to latch onto. Still, it has an unnerving style that melds interestingly with its upscale Manhattan setting.
Dir - Bea Grant
Overall: MEH
Actor-turned-filmmaker Bea Grant's second full-length from behind the lens 12 Hour Shift pairs her with Angela Bettis as a cynical and disgruntled nurse with a side hustle that goes awry. Bettis had long proven herself just as capable at handling dark comedy as she is at nailing eccentric leading ladies and she thankfully gets to do both here, rolling her eyes in endless frustration at her increasingly bad night at work. Everyone else on screen also seems to be enjoying themselves playing local Arkansas yokels, with Chloe Farnworth in particular making a fun and dimwitted accomplice. Even wrestling buddies David Arquette and Mick Foley show up for a couple of scenes. While several jokes land as the hectic plot flies more and more out of control, just as many of the gags hit with an awkward thud. Wacky implausibilities, characters behaving however they need to in order to propel the plot forward, and a random musical number all fall on deaf ears, but Grant balances the tricky tone as well as could be expected. It gets by on its performances and the indie production qualities, (several behind the scenes personnel pull multiple duties), but it falls short of nailing all of its parts.
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