Sean Parker
Vertical Entertainment has really beefed up their film slate for 2025. Earlier this year, The Damned whisked us away to an isolated island of terror, then Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista got all western-fantasy in In the Lost Lands, and just last month, Josh Hartnett went all John Wick on a plane in Fight or Flight. This week, Vertical releases the funniest dark comedy I’ve seen since Caye Casas’ The Coffee Table. It’s called I Don’t Understand You and treads some similar ground in that department stemming from the parental fears that come with expecting a toddler, but applying them a bit more indirectly in this case.
Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells play a lovingly married gay couple who are on the verge of adopting their first child. Having previously tried adopting only to find themselves scammed, the anxiety of beginning that process again leads the couple to take an Italian vacation. On the recommendation of an old family friend, Dom (Kroll) and Cole (Rannells) decide to have a meal at a defunct restaurant in the middle of nowhere, but wind up lost in the Italian countryside. Between not knowing the language and encountering people who do things a little differently from how they do them in the city, the couple’s nerves are a bit frazzled. Eventually, they make it to dinner, where a series of farcical accidents and misunderstandings leave the restaurant owner, Zia Luciana (Nunzia Schiano), dead.
The film carries a similar comedic tone to Eli Craig’s Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil in that the assumptions of others’ intentions are marred with cultural nuance, creating an atmosphere of confusion and misinterpretation. When Zia’s son (Morgan Spector) arrives and tries to celebrate with Dom and Cole on the news they’re about to parents, a mix-up creates a deeper-well of chaos, the sort of comedy you’d have seen in a Neil Simon or Blake Edwards farce, but fueled with dark, sharp, and blood-drenched humor that is becoming increasingly popular.
Rannells and Kroll often get stuck in sidekick roles in their various films, so it’s nice seeing them leading a comedy like I Don’t Understand You. The two have collaborated for years on Netflix’s Big Mouth series (the final season just dropped on May 23), and as a result, their chemistry is well aligned. Dom and Cole, still recovering from the emotional turbulence of being catfished by a woman who wasn’t pregnant, are hiding a lot of their concerns under the surface as they prepare to try again with an eager donor (Long Bright River’s Amanda Seyfried). Dom’s disappointment shines through in certain scenes, and Kroll’s expressiveness manages the character’s depth through vulnerability, while Rannells adds decisive charm and empathetic warmth to Cole. But what most will notice is the quick-witted back-and-forth between the two, thoroughly vetting them as a believable couple and providing a plethora of laughs from start to finish.
Fear comes in many different flavors, and for Dom and Cole, getting the news they’ve been selected to adopt the baby manifests that fear into a night of endless situational humor that goes to some horror movie adjacent places. The two become scared they’ll never get to hold a baby again, let alone be gifted the opportunity to raise one. The moral of the story is that all parents worry endlessly, and all families are a little f*cked up in some regard, but you manage to do the best you can despite mistakes. As far as characters go, Dom and Cole are fantastically likeable, even if they’re bad people, and it’s beyond a shadow of a doubt that after the events at Zia Luciana’s, they would do anything to protect each other and their family.
While the mistakes Dom and Cole keep making seem to only increase the body count, it does make for a film that’s equally hilarious as it is jaw-dropping, and one of the most entertaining horror-comedies I’ve seen this year. However, even though I Don’t Understand You is a perfectly pitch-black comedy, some may see the events as a little too morose, especially if they’re holding a realistic viewpoint that includes the adoption of a child. I maintain that writer-directors (and real-life partners) David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano have pitched a brilliant satire that unfurls all the incendiary mental “What if we’re not good enough?,” “What if we’re not ready?,” and “what’s the worst that could possibly happen?,” then provides a side-splitting, albeit shocking, answer of “well, thank God for my incredible accomplice.”
If your suspension of realism doesn’t allow for moral absurdity, or something about murder and adoption is too antagonizing, you may want to skip this one. And there are some additional provocations here to consider, depending upon how you want to see them. The film is about two Americans who cover up murders in a foreign country, so if you’re not on board for that level of satiric impropriety, again, you may want to try for something a little less dark.
Moreover, if you do decide to check out I Don’t Understand You, I urge viewers not to watch the trailer, which is attached to this review. Way too much is revealed by the trailer, and if any of what you read compels you to see I Don’t Understand You, I believe you’ll enjoy it more without it.
Inspired by Craig and Crano’s own story of adoption, heartache, and eventual success, the two dedicated the film to their son at I Don’t Understand You ’s premiere at SXSW in 2024. Clearly, the film is meant as a diversion: a way to unpack all of the bad thoughts each was feeling throughout the adoption process. In a way, I Don’t Understand You feels like the cathartic construction of every parent-to-be’s most worrisome thoughts into a very original comedy-of-errors. This seems to be one of those titles that critics either love or hate, and I am very much the former, but this title won’t be for those with a weak stomach and prudish sense of humor.
I Don’t Understand You is exclusively in theaters June 6.
I Don’t Understand You | Official Trailer (HD) | Vertical
Dom and Cole embark on a picture-perfect Italian vacation before their impending adoption but find themselves lost in a foreign land with no cell service, zero comprehension of the language, and escalating turmoil that could explode at any moment.
