Fantasia 2025 | Blood, Heart, and Cinema Give Life (and Love) to This Independent Darling
Dear Moviegoers,
Do you believe in “love at first sight?” I like to think that I do, at least when it comes to movies. This notion gets tested often with so-called classics of the form, enjoyed by many but ho-hummed by a few—myself included. And while my Letterboxd profile shows that I frequently like more than dislike, it doesn’t reveal the truth that, skin-deep, it’s all up in the air.
I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn was love at first fin (the end), and I pray to watch it again. And again.
A jaded Japanese superstar, an overly optimistic and ever-excitable wannabe filmmaker Brooklynite, and a cast of local misfits make up this friendly feature about how, over a century after its birth, cinema can still make an impact on our lives, individually and collectively. It’s nice to be reminded of that.
In our waking life, going out to the movies has become a statement of grace and an act of rescue for a form of art and exhibition that is always threatened with extinction. I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn, its title calling back to b-movie monster presentations from the 1950s and 60s, bursts at the seams with an agenda of love story and passionate art affair. Most noble.
At the center of Kenichi Uganda’s flick are the two leads, Ui Mihara as Shina and Estevan Munoz as Jack. Shina is bored, exhausted, and completely emotionless with the film industry in Japan, while Jack is head over heels with DIY renegade filmmaking and joyous film watching. Everything to Jack is fresh, new, and viewed through bright rose-colored glasses. Munoz’s overall performance as Jack does contrast a bit harshly with Ui Mihara’s Shina, who steals everything she can from every scene she’s in. Speaking little English and being lost in New York, she makes the scenario beautifully humorous, with a touch of serendipity and chance. She’s the pro to Munoz’s fun-living amateur. Harsh chemistry, but chemistry nonetheless.
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Jack attempts to make his movie, a romantic ghost story that flirts with Shina’s newly found enthusiasm for a career she previously couldn’t care less for, with an old consumer-ish camcorder and a ton of emotion blazing through him and his crew. With maybe $1,000 as his budget, given to him by Larry Fessenden, and a one-take mindset - Woody Allen by way of Ed Wood? - Jack makes up for first-time naivete with the speed and confidence of a high school A/V geek. Director Ugana might see a younger version of himself in this role, but any inkling of that isn’t represented in his own process and execution.
Ugana is the real deal, punk through and through, but efficient and resourceful as a GOAT.
And, as an aside, New York City hasn’t looked this good to me since the equally great and fairly whimsical (if manic) Pratfall, reflecting its opportunity-filled skyline and street-level personality back at two will-they/won’t they lovers of all that is cinema, from corn-syrup blood to sticky theater floors.
Could it be that independent film has the power to save the theatrical experience, if given more of a shot? Beyond Fathom events and above poor showtime schedules, films like this should be the spark that inspires moviegoing at large. Films about films. Cliche much?
Why not?
Like The Monkees, I’m a believer. 5/5
I Fell in Love with a Z-Grade Director in Brooklyn premiered at Fantasia 2025.