Harrison Atkins’s Sour Minnows is an experimental film in an unconventional sense of the definition, with a very loose and whimsical plot. It doesn’t feel anything like a Stan Brakhage (Dog Star Man) movie (depending on how that makes you feel, that may be a positive) but is almost Lynchian in his most Eraserhead (1977) era (again, depending how you feel that may be a positive or not), while at the exact same time this feels like something Moorhead and Benson (Something in the Dirt) would’ve made before they perfected the craft. There is a lot going on, and it almost requires a second watch to understand all of it. Sour Minnows is also a movie for movie lovers.
David Brown as Ricky in SOUR MINNOWS. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
Friends Ricky (David Brown) and Tepper (Chase Williamson) are walking home from the grocery store one day when they stumble across an unusual, eerie, and disturbing sight. Six random men are down, licking the pavement, looking possessed, and just scaring everyone witnessing this, both on screen and in the audience. We don’t know what they’re doing, we don’t know why it’s happening; we are as confused and disturbed as Ricky. When they get back home, Ricky has literally no recollection of this and describes it as “just a blurry spot;” something is happening and we’re just along for the ride. The blending between reality and fiction starts as Ricky starts seething “The Yellow Thing,” slowly losing himself and his grip on reality.
Sour Minnows is a weird, experimental, transcendence experience that serves as much as a character study on human psyche as it does a film. The film doesn’t entirely work as a whole. There is a lot of promise and intrigue built here and, as the first feature that Harrison Atkins both wrote and directed, there’s enough to be interested in what he does next. Sour Minnows’s downfall is also its strongest asset — the lack of narrative. Solely focusing on a character study allows the audience to get lost in the world and nearly simultaneously experience the chaos that Ricky is going through, as equally confused and lost as to what is happening as he is.
For a movie to succeed as a character study without much structure going on other than slowly slipping away from reality and into this weird delirium, the cast needs to be stacked and at the top of their game. Thankfully, David Brown (I Need to Go Here) is the soaring star Sour Minnows needs to exceed and creates the environment the movie needs to flourish in. He’s simply fantastic at being trapped in this new world he finds himself in. Brown utilizes subtle facial ticks and movements to convey the duality of expressing deep confusion while also showing the focus behind the eyes, ensuring we see his brain working overtime trying to piece it all together. This constant balancing act between confused and engaged grips us as an audience as it keeps the character’s reactions grounded and realistic, never flying off the rails, keeping us from distancing ourselves from him out of panic.
Alongside him are Chase Williamson (Crooks) and Suzanna Son (Red Rocket), who are also great in their support roles. They keep their performances understated enough as to not overtake Brown’s, keeping his character the focus of our attention. They also keep the audience from opting out of this adventure by the ways they have their characters listen and react to what Ricky says, always hearing him out, never signalling dismay or actively blowing him off with something as simple as an eye roll. Keeping their characters’ mannerisms showing that they’re all-in for support, pulls and keeps the audience in as a participant to the chaos all the way to the final frame.
Suzanna Son as Aura in SOUR MINNOWS. Photo courtesy of Fantasia International Film Festival.
The script has the structure to tell a captivating story, but it feels more of an outline of a story of one’s chaotic journey than the entire journey itself explored. It feels fragmented, and maybe that is because it is fragmented. Ricky remembers and forgets things, is trying to combat “The Yellow Thing,” and is trying to just piece it all together, and since Atkins’s direction loops us into Ricky’s adventure and his perspective without being shot from his point of view, we’re only getting the parts of the story Ricky sees and engages with. Due to the nature of this, this becomes a character study of Ricky. We are watching this relatively normal, unassuming person going through life after witnessing something freaky and discovering “The Yellow Thing” that terrifies him, and seeing how he is dealing with all of that. Despite the chaotic nature of the story, it’s the directing by Atkins that allows the audience to feel that they’re a part of the film, like flies on the wall, watching everything happen in real time. Atkins never deceives the audience or pulls the rug out from under us, keeping us as grounded as the characters we’re tagging along with. Overall, Sour Minnows needs an open mind to appreciate the stylistic chaos that is occurring, but the lack of narrative structure, despite a strong performance, is going to be troublesome to engage with.
Screening during Fantasia International Film Festival 2026.
For more information, head to the official Fantasia International Film Festival Sour Minnows webpage.
Final Score: 3.5 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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