Mosquito State

Mosquito State is a very interesting movie on paper. A cronenburg-esque body horror flick that ties in with the 2007 economic crysis. All the technical aspects of the movie are terrific.

The movie has beautiful cinematography and great music and sound design. Unfortunately the movie falls apart in the story aspect. Beau Knapp plays his role far to cartoonishly to be taken seriously but also doesn't bring a lot of charisma either. He does fine when sulking around his apartment but fails when it comes to interacting with the other actors. The biggest problem with movie is that it's overall it's not very interesting.

I will clarify again that movie is beautiful looking but all the creepy mosquito shots and market crash metaphors can't make up for a Boeing main character who you spend the whole movie with.

OK then ... one star for the somewhat unusual idea. One star for the terrific cinematography. And one star for this film's ability to hold me until the end, to see what the outcome might be. Tempting as it is to take away that last star, I'll leave it there, But rarely do I agree with nearly all the other reviewers like I do now. If there were allegories or metaphors or allusions or anything else instructive here, I missed it completely.

...But it was not!

Acting, direction, art concept, script (...to a certain point!) were all fine.

Then it all derailed catastrophically into nothing.

In the end, a sour taste of a fine wine that was bottled in a second hand plastic bottle found lying around...

It's like The Fly & Creepshow's They're Creeping Up on You had a baby and named him by a Margin Call.

I LOVE When Animals (Insects) Attack movies and fully support indie films, especially when ambitions such as this. First off, this movie LOOKS GORGEOUS. Head to toe, this movie looks like Ex Machina Meets The Fly. In visuals, plus setting.

But, sadly, it's still just an experiment. I wish the best for these filmmakers. I love how this looks and was shot, but I actually need something more than a prototype.

Obviously mentally ill, but genius Richard Boca woos a woman the same night a mosquito finds its way into his billion-dollar penthouse overlooking Central Park, NYC. He's an analysist for Wall Street and sees horrible things coming in the late 2000s. Also, he's infected with his new friends/roommates, the mosquitoes.

I wanted to love this movie further, but DAMN. For every gorgeously shot scene, there's the "Indie Feel" with light substance. Only one or two characters barely comment on our main character's sudden and disturbing swollen face from his new CGI mosquito roommates he keeps well feed/stocked. And those people being so indifferent...I don't buy it and took me right out of the movie.

If you're a film student, study this for cinematography and acting. Both are top notch. Sadly, the experiment does not pay off and you're left wondering: How Did This Get Made?

***

Final Thoughts: This DID reinitiate my interest in tighty-whities. I love when an actor can wear some onscreen. Shows real balls. So to speak.

If there was a social commentary in this movie, I missed it. It DID remind me a little bit of "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka but everything else was lost on me, I'm afraid. Guess I'm just not as cerebral as I thought. If you want to be aggravated and/or frustrated then you may want to watch this movie; after all, it IS pretty to look at and the music is adequately ominous and brooding, anything else it meant to say only ruffled my hair on its way over my head.