Arizona Seaside

Writing and directing a murder mystery doesn't lead people to implicate its writer/director as a murderer, or as inherently mysterious. Yet when you're Jens Pilegaard and you write and direct a wonderfully eccentric nut job comedy like Arizona Seaside, it's hard not to presume that Pilegaard must in Real Life be gloriously off-the-rails. It's just how it works.

Whether or not that's true, Arizona Seaside picks up the stick and slaps you with it early and often. One look at the log line portends what lies ahead: "A Kazakhstan girl crosses paths with a sweet conman moonlighting as a Robin Hood for stray animals." Game on! As the film opens up its metaphorical bathrobe and exposes its goofball self to the audience, we see a weirdly solid storyline relationship develop between the Kazakstani runaway wanting to be a country music superstar (!) and the anal-rententive, business-minded bloke Pilegaard shrewdly counterpoints her against. Despite a cast as large and as wildly unique as the comedic ideas flying in and out, Arizona Seaside admirably holds its focus on these two core characters throughout this cleverly absurdist ride.

If you're the type who needs comparables, sketch-driven mainstays like Saturday Night Live (when at the height of its powers) and the legendary Monty Python are legitimate reference points, as is Chevy Chase's Vacation series: All utilize the outlandish melded with a coherent story. Through to the end, Arizona Seaside is as fun as it is funny.