Title: Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It
Director: Yernar Nurgaliyev
Starring: Daniar Alshinov, Rustem Zhaniyamanov, Yerkebulan Daiyrov
Runtime: 1 hr 24 mins

What It Is: Unable to withstand the constant onslaught of his wife, a man decides to run away for the day with his friends – a would-be businessman and a district police officer. The men decide to go fishing, but a series of unforeseen, sudden, and incomprehensible events begin to unfold.

What We Think: This is a type of film that I haven’t seen done in a long, long time. I struggle to find the most coherent and adequate words to describe it – yet for the first time ever, I’m going to have to say that FILM TITLE  is absolutely bat sh**t crazy.

I had no idea what kind of thrilling and hilarious ride awaited me when the opening credits started rolling. Sweetie, You Won’t Believe It is indeed those two things, but it also has something else – heart. I can’t really think of a proper genre to define this type of experience, because it’s such a wonderful blend of comedy, horror, and action. I guarantee that if you cross the 15-minute mark, you’ll be pulled in for the rest of the film – the pacing will make you feel like you’ve been injected with pure entertainment.

The performances from everyone are so endearing and, honestly, cartoonish in a way that adds tremendously to the out of this world story that unfolds. The special effects are outstanding and used very sparingly – if someone gets their jaw torn off, we wouldn’t want to see it for more than a few seconds, believe me. In regards to the cinematography, I’m actually quite impressed. Usually a film of this caliber would use a lot of quick cuts and shaky camera, shot/reverse shot, the works – but there is a meticulous amount of care put into the camera work. There are probably more one take shots in the film than the ones I noticed, and that’s a good thing – it’s very difficult to make those seem invisible, and it’s very rewarding to provoke a reaction of “wait, that was all in one take?”, which I certainly had a few times while watching. In terms of being able to re-watch it – I’ve seen it twice already. It’s wedged right between new guilty pleasure and my favorite film out of Fantastic Fest!

Our Grade: B+; All in all, this film is funny, well shot and acted, and one hell of a fun time! What I wouldn’t give to see this one in a full theater… a beautiful black comedy.