Nagana: A sweaty, strange trip into the archives

If you are looking for a fast-paced thriller, keep scrolling. Nagana is the kind of movie that moves at the speed of a humid afternoon where nothing happens. But if you have a soft spot for weird, forgotten 1930s studio projects that try to tackle "serious" science, you might actually get a kick out of this.

Onslow Stevens plays the lead with a frantic, wide-eyed intensity that feels like he hasn't slept in a week. Maybe he’s just catching the vibe of the movie. The whole thing feels like it was filmed inside a greenhouse. You can almost smell the damp wool and the fake jungle foliage.

There is a lot of talk about tsetse flies. Like, a lot. It is the sort of dialogue that makes you realize movies used to be much more comfortable with long, dry explanations about tropical parasites. Billy McClain and Noble Johnson are in here too, though the script doesn't exactly give them much room to breathe outside of the standard archetypes of the era.

I found myself staring at the background extras more than the main plot. There’s a scene near the middle where a character is talking about the urgency of the cure, and in the background, a guy is just sort of staring at a wooden crate like he forgot his lines. It's strangely comforting.

Sometimes the film feels like a weird cousin to The Range Feud—not because the stories are similar, but because they share that distinct "we are working with a budget of three nickels and a dream" energy. You can see the seams everywhere.

Is it a classic? Absolutely not. Is it worth watching on a rainy Tuesday when you want to feel like you've fallen through a time warp? Sure.

• The lighting in the jungle scenes is hilariously inconsistent.
• Onslow Stevens definitely took the "stressed doctor" look to heart.
• There is a moment where a map is pointed at for about twenty seconds too long.
• The transition between scenes is often just a hard cut to someone looking worried.

It’s not trying to be a deep meditation on anything. It’s just a movie about a guy trying to fix a bug problem in the middle of nowhere. Sometimes that’s enough. 🦟