Mosquito State (2020) User Reviews

Come Cautiously to the Mosquito Coast

[thesar-2 · 5/10 · 28 August 2021]

It's like The Fly & Creepshow's They're Creeping Up on You had a baby and named him by a Margin Call.

I LOVE When Animals (Insects) Attack movies and fully support indie films, especially when ambitions such as this. First off, this movie LOOKS GORGEOUS. Head to toe, this movie looks like Ex Machina Meets The Fly. In visuals, plus setting.

But, sadly, it's still just an experiment. I wish the best for these filmmakers. I love how this looks and was shot, but I actually need something more than a prototype.

Obviously mentally ill, but genius Richard Boca woos a woman the same night a mosquito finds its way into his billion-dollar penthouse overlooking Central Park, NYC. He's an analysist for Wall Street and sees horrible things coming in the late 2000s. Also, he's infected with his new friends/roommates, the mosquitoes.

I wanted to love this movie further, but DAMN. For every gorgeously shot scene, there's the "Indie Feel" with light substance. Only one or two characters barely comment on our main character's sudden and disturbing swollen face from his new CGI mosquito roommates he keeps well feed/stocked. And those people being so indifferent...I don't buy it and took me right out of the movie.

If you're a film student, study this for cinematography and acting. Both are top notch. Sadly, the experiment does not pay off and you're left wondering: How Did This Get Made?

***

Final Thoughts: This DID reinitiate my interest in tighty-whities. I love when an actor can wear some onscreen. Shows real balls. So to speak.

Stunning Visuals and Atmosphere but Unfulfilling

[bakergarrett · 5/10 · 30 August 2021]

Mosquito State is a very interesting movie on paper. A cronenburg-esque body horror flick that ties in with the 2007 economic crysis. All the technical aspects of the movie are terrific.

The movie has beautiful cinematography and great music and sound design. Unfortunately the movie falls apart in the story aspect. Beau Knapp plays his role far to cartoonishly to be taken seriously but also doesn't bring a lot of charisma either. He does fine when sulking around his apartment but fails when it comes to interacting with the other actors. The biggest problem with movie is that it's overall it's not very interesting.

I will clarify again that movie is beautiful looking but all the creepy mosquito shots and market crash metaphors can't make up for a Boeing main character who you spend the whole movie with.

A slow movie that might be about something

[drjacobgrayson · 4/10 · 30 August 2021]

I was lost from beginning to end. It was interesting to watch because it is very bizarre, but ultimately I didn't get any of the symbolism, I didn't understand what was happening, and by the end I didn't much care.

Visually stunning, creepy, Boring

[LizMann18 · 3/10 · 27 August 2021]

Mosquito State is one more film that had the potential to be good and just ended up as a big bore, even annoying.

The cinematography and visual effects, along with sound effects are stunning . A proper brooding atmosphere is created ............and then nothing much happens.

Beau Knapp is a great actor, but why was he instructed to play this role as some variation of Quasimodo ? He is the worst part of the film and also the largest part of the film. As has become the new thing in film, he seems to have been told to do everything as slowly as possible. His performance here is career ending bad, almost a caricature.

I have no idea what this film was even about. Taking place during the financial and housing bubble of 2007, there isn't much about this that turns it into horror except the millions of CGI mosquitos and a not well done grotesque make-up job on Mr. Knapp.

If you hate bugs this may give you nightmare's, but there is nothing scary about the story, if it even had a story.

Nothing Really Worthwhile

[hellsing218 · 3/10 · 26 August 2021]

As several critics had described it as horror I thought I'd give it a go. But no. This is an absolutely bland film that goes nowhere. It was more focused on economics and wine than anything remotely interesting.

Boring!

[nikemychoice · 1/10 · 26 August 2021]

To be true to you I thought it would be something interesting.. but it was boring and i did not even understand the movie or its end.. It one point i felt like i was watching The Fly again.. but This one fails.. and nothing to do with The Fly..

Beautiful, but odd and unexpected, film.

[stevesinger-2001 · 6/10 · 29 August 2021]

Well that was... unexpected.

"Mosquito State" takes place in 2007, during the beginning of the presidential campaign and just before the market crash that led to the great recession. The movie begins with the literal birth of a mosquito over the opening credits. We then follow the mosquito to a wine bar in NYC where some sort of party is going on, and it bites Richard Boca (Beau Knapp), a socially awkward man who is sort of hanging around. And by "socially awkward", I am not kidding here -- Richard walks and stands hunched over, doesn't look people in the eyes, twitches, and barely speaks. In one of those "only in a movie" moments (or, to be move precise, only in a movie written by a man) the bar manager Lena (Charlotte Vega), a staggeringly beautiful woman, takes a liking to him after only a few seconds and insists that they immediately go back to his place. When they get there, she discovers that Richard is obscenely, ridiculously rich (I mean maybe not Jeff Bezos level rich but close). He never gets any less awkward or weird (in fact, maybe gets more so) and eventually Lena just thanks him for the company and leaves.

Turns out that the mosquito has followed Richard home, and the bite is starting to get swollen. This is not as bad as it sounds, since Richard created an algorithm for a stock trading company based on the behavior of bees, but it's not working as well now as the market volatility is increasing, and he becomes convinced that he needs a new pattern based on the behavior of mosquitos. So he goes about making his palatial home a breeding ground for mosquitos so he can observe them, and breed they indeed do, soon becoming a swarm. And Richard becomes more and more obsessed with Lena while at the same time consumed with making his mosquito-based algorithm work...

The pitch for "Mosquito State" appears to be "What if Darren Aranofsky made 'The Fly' instead of David Cronenberg?" So if you're waiting for action, like for the mosquitos to attack -- either random people or as a tool of revenge against the people who treat Richard badly -- you'll be disappointed. There's plenty of body horror here -- the mosquitos feast on Richard and he reacts badly to the bites, leaving his face and body grotesquely covered with boils and bumps -- but the choice of "mosquitos" instead appear to be social commentary (blood suckers predict stock market behavior) as opposed to horror. The characterizations are also challenging -- Richard never becomes anything less than unpleasant so it's hard to root for him, and we're clearly intended to. And while Lena is an engaging character, the eventual disclosure of her background doesn't really explain her actions.

But on the other hand, it's a beautiful, weird movie. It's definitely trying to say something relevant -- whether it succeeds or not is in question, but the attempt is definitely there. Honestly, it's a movie I'd love for people to watch so we could discuss. I'm giving it a lukewarm recommendation (6 stars) so long as you know what you're getting yourself into.

Yep... It could have been something...

[pedronunesnomundo · 3/10 · 27 August 2021]

...But it was not!

Acting, direction, art concept, script (...to a certain point!) were all fine.

Then it all derailed catastrophically into nothing.

In the end, a sour taste of a fine wine that was bottled in a second hand plastic bottle found lying around...

What??

[Goloh · 3/10 · 3 September 2021]

OK then ... one star for the somewhat unusual idea. One star for the terrific cinematography. And one star for this film's ability to hold me until the end, to see what the outcome might be. Tempting as it is to take away that last star, I'll leave it there, But rarely do I agree with nearly all the other reviewers like I do now. If there were allegories or metaphors or allusions or anything else instructive here, I missed it completely.

Beautifully made

[Martin-E-Brannan · 9/10 · 1 March 2022]

On aesthetics and soundtrack alone this movie gets an 8 from me. This is one of the most stunningly cinematic films I've seen and the soundtrack is beautiful. Add to that the stellar acting and sound editing and I was in near sensory overload. The story, an apparent metaphor for stock, housing, and commodity trading gamed beyond the limits of technology to control (leading to the crash of 2008) is impenetrable on a single viewing, but it's not necessary to "get it" in order to marvel at this visual and aural feast.

Slow pacing, not bad, not great. But soso

[jardinswingler · 6/10 · 24 September 2021]

First of, I'm going to agree with alot of the reviews , it's not @ all horror, suspense, yes, drama yes, mystery yes,. 2nd I really wished the direction went into a version fly meets bug w Wynonna Ryder, spoilers alert, where the girl becomes the ne mother. Of the mosquitoes. They make these movies to pg even if there rated R. Sorry that's just real talk it's listed as an horror it's supposed to have shock value something like I split on your grave or hills have eyes maybe not that high. However the soundtrack was dope, the chick was drop dead hot, the lead actor ughh idk he kept walking around w a limp that director never gave us explanation on. I did like the fact if u paid attention to the TV in background u see alot of facts going on in the world some of which are relatable & also the biology & science was pretty on point for the most part, of course it had to be imbelished for the movie but it's a movie. No it's not perfect but it's good if u ain't got nothing to watch & looking for a decent sci-fi & the girl is smoking.

Pretentious arthouse nonsense

[sue-77 · 2/10 · 3 October 2021]

Straight up, don't waste your time even if you like pretentious art house films. This one is shot quite nicely, lovely visuals. That's about all I can say about that.

Acting, eh. Lead is not bad, but since the film is so bizarre, yet ultimately so dull and lacking in any sort of payoff the actor's attempts at an odd, 'super intelligent' savant type weirdo are just that, odd.

I know it was set before the 2007 stock market crash and supposed tomake some sort of statement about futility seeing the future and being a small organism that should return to its ecosystem or some nonsense. Whatever! It was dull, made no sense, had no payoff with all the mosquitoes, the girl, the jerks at work or the huge deformities on his body. Boring.

A new version of Kafka?

[dracforever · 5/10 · 2 September 2021]

If there was a social commentary in this movie, I missed it. It DID remind me a little bit of "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka but everything else was lost on me, I'm afraid. Guess I'm just not as cerebral as I thought. If you want to be aggravated and/or frustrated then you may want to watch this movie; after all, it IS pretty to look at and the music is adequately ominous and brooding, anything else it meant to say only ruffled my hair on its way over my head.

I go zzzz like da mosquito go zzzz.

[Victor_Fallon · 2/10 · 23 September 2021]

The opening titles are good and really set the scene for a high quality horror movie. As soon as the titles are over we are plunged headfirst into terrible acting, laughable dialogue, cheap cgi and cheesy effects. For the first ten minutes we get badly mixed, aggressively pounding EDM music slammed into our ears, utterly destroying any chance of establishing a tone or atmosphere. The movie never recovers from this initial, baffling mistake.

Our lead character is an unrealistic, uninteresting, boring corporate butthead. He's bitten by a mosquito and then lurches from scene to scene spouting aggressive, unrealistic dialogue to other buttheads who I think are meant to be 'hyper-masculine males', but appear to be written by somebody who has neither worked in a corporate office nor met any human beings in real life. His mosquito bite begins to affect him in boring ways. Then it goes for an artsy, poignant payoff which I'm still laughing at.

The cinematography is over-reliant on washing scenes in uniform colour, to the point of silliness, where even a domestic scene in an apartment doesn't look real. 'Stagey' is an understatement.

The opening titles are good. Oh, I said that already.

Strange?

[forrest-17322 · 4/10 · 8 September 2021]

People are strange, when you're a stranger..

I liked the visual styling, but focused too much on mood and too little on why I should care. Shallow, boring.

Insane - or not

[kosmasp · 6/10 · 28 October 2021]

First things first: technically speaking there is nothing wrong with the movie. It looks good, it sounds good ... actually too good if you think about it. The sounds of Mosquitos may drive you crazy ... if they do and you are as "fond" of them as I am ... you'll be in for a "treat".

Having said all that, the movie is quite enticing. Not as enticing as the mosquitos are to our main character, but still ... a quite crazy story about money and how it sucks people dry ... oh wait ... is there a "hidden" message here? Puns aside, this is a slow burn ... you're either with it or you'll be bored (main actor is amazing btw)

"The Fly" meets "Big Short", only worse. Much worse.

[come_xxx · 2/10 · 23 September 2021]

"The Fly" meets "Big Short", only worse. Much worse. Sorry, but this sums up this movie. Only cinematography saves it from one-star rating.

Unfortunately didn't live up my to my expectations.

[becky-92346 · 2/10 · 22 January 2022]

Mosquito State (2020) follows a Wall Street data analyst who experiences an extreme psychological breakdown as his apartment becomes invested with breeding mosquitos. This movie had some really good cinematography and themes of capitalism, however apart from that, this was quite a letdown for me.

The movie starts with the creepy intro that made my skin crawl, but from there it is incredibly slow and confusing. I was never really hooked and couldn't pay attention, therefore I just didn't care about the film. I will admit that I know nothing about Wall Street so that could be one of the reasons why I didn't care for this. On the other hand, the movie made no attempt to explain anything through any means.

Apart from being a bit too visually dark at points, the cinematography and visuals were good. The set designs felt futuristic and dream-like, and I liked the dark colour palettes that made the neons pop. I also noticed quite a few interesting focus shifts!

The movie only really centres around our protagonist and we don't get to learn about any other characters. I would've liked to see more of Lena instead. The protagonist was very odd and didn't feel like real person, the movie made it super hard for me to sympathise with him.

Last of all, the movie was unintentionally funny at times which drastically took away from the psychological horror aspects. There were some pretty comical zooms of the camera, alongside the character being goofy and laughable when he lost his temper (which unfortunately was supposed to be scary and wasn't intentional). Throughout most of the duration I found it hard to take it seriously.

Hairy, visually stunning with a complex storyline

[thierryflorit · 8/10 · 26 September 2021]

A very hairy atmosphere from the start with a deep questions about the world we live in today - looking at the life of a very successful trader who doesnt feel fulfilled in his life despite his wealth and social status.

Quite a complex story brought together through stunning photography.

Great film which Ill watch again!

Really nice cinematography but a weird movie.

[gary-erwin · 5/10 · 28 November 2021]

I didn't understand the whole thing about mosquitos and the fact he had welts over his body throughout the entire movie and acted like nothing was wrong. I think maybe that's the point though. It was a strange but beautifully filmed movie.

A Tru Art Piece

[jeromebasque · 9/10 · 13 September 2021]

This film took me to a different world. A different mindset. It captured me. If you don't understand the film you would understand the film. I would compare it to Melancholia if Melancholia was directed by David Cronenberg. If you liked that, you will like this.

A Superb, Moody Piece of Existential Drama

[sensualworldkb · 9/10 · 24 March 2023]

I agree with some of the previous reviewers comments - this is wonderfully shot and the soundtrack is excellent - but wholly disagree with the rest of his comments.

This movie is best thought of as part Cronenberg, part JG Ballard, part financial drama. It's a weird mix, which is where the greatness occurs. I short, this is a film that feels very different from the usual Hollywood fair (see High Rise for something more akin to this). It's both beautiful and unsettling.

Much worse movies are made for much more money. Sure, everything is not spelt out for you, but why is that a problem? We tend to forget that movies are about fantasy, the fictional depiction of human emotions. Everything doesn't have to "realistic" and relatable, it just needs to convey its personality and ambiance.

There's not a single bad performance here, although to be fair, the protagonist is the on the screen almost the entire time, often alone. There is a sense of a candle burning brightly, and then extinguishing in a short time with wisps of dialog and visuals trailing away like smoke.

I watch a lot of movies, but don't usually review them. I watch a lot of very dull film making, and this is the proverbial "breath of fresh air". It's something that will reward multiple viewings.

Ultimately, it's the mood that carries the films intentions, as an aroma conveys the beauty of a flower. This sucks you in, silences a room, and transports you to the mindspace of a world of chaos, reduced to a simple fact of life. That it anchors itself in a very real financial disaster just adds weight. Even as the banks were crashing, poetry was being written.

People don't understand

[0ffworlder · 9/10 · 19 September 2021]

People, when something catches them off guard or is foreign to them to react in such a way that because they do not understand they think it is rubbish. This film takes your mind to a different place. It is a deep film that might go over the heads of many. There's no reason for me to dive into all the different parallels of this film. I hope you were watching the news highlights as it gave a lot of insight into what the film is tied into as well. Not many films grab my mind anymore. This one did.