Cult Review
Senior Film Conservator

Honestly, it depends entirely on your patience for watching people stand in water. If you find the sound of a reel spinning and the sight of a fly hitting a lake surface relaxing, you’ll love it. If you need a narrative arc or even a human being you can actually relate to, you’re going to be bored out of your mind within ten minutes.
This isn't a movie you watch for the acting. It’s a movie you put on when you want to zone out and pretend you're on a vacation you can't afford.
There’s this strange, repetitive beauty to the whole thing. It doesn't try to be like The Dawn Patrol where everything is high stakes and loud. Instead, it just loops the same basic motion of casting and reeling. It’s almost trance-like.
The cinematography is surprisingly sharp for its age. You catch these tiny details—the glint of the sun on a wet line, the way a boat cuts through the water. It’s far more observant than The Young Count, which felt like it was rushing to get somewhere.
There's a specific shot in the second act where a guy misses a catch and just stares at the horizon for way too long. It felt like watching a friend get frustrated on a Saturday morning. You don't get that kind of accidental honesty in a blockbuster like Murder in the Fleet.
It’s not perfect. Sometimes the editing feels like a slideshow that someone forgot to put a transition on. *Clunk.* Next scene. *Clunk.* Next scene.
It’s definitely a bit thin. You could probably cut twenty minutes out and not lose anything. But there’s something nice about a film that doesn't feel the need to explain itself. It just shows you a guy with a net, and then you’re in a different country, and that’s that. 🐟
It’s not trying to win an Oscar. It’s just trying to show you a fish. Sometimes that’s enough, I guess.
Year
1935
IMDb Rating
—

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Deciphering the legacy of transgressive cult cinema.
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