I Don't Understand You (film)

I Don't Understand You is a 2024 comedy horror film written and directed by David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano. It stars Nick Kroll, Andrew Rannells, Morgan Spector, Eleonora Romandini and Amanda Seyfried. The film is about a gay couple who are planning to adopt a baby vacationing in Italy without any knowledge of Italian language and transportation.

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Dom and Cole are a wealthy gay couple living in Los Angeles. They are celebrating their 10th anniversary with a trip to Italy. There they receive a much-anticipated call from Candace, who is expecting a child that Dom and Cole are considering adopting.

They visit Daniele, an old friend of Dom's father, who arranges a dinner for their anniversary at a farm restaurant in Orvieto that has been closed for several months. The cook wants to reopen her restaurant just for them. The directions are not very precise, however, and they get lost in the middle of rural nowhere on the way there. Their rental car gets stuck in the mud during a heavy rainstorm. A grumpy farmer with a shotgun shows up, and they initially assume the worst, but the man helps them, and when they get to the restaurant they are warmly welcomed by the owner, Zia Luciana. The food is fantastic, although the staunch vegetarian Cole is forced to try a pizza with horse sausage.

• Nick Kroll as Dom
• Andrew Rannells as Cole
• Morgan Spector as Massimo
• Eleonora Romandini as Francesca
• Amanda Seyfried as Candice
• Nunzia Schiano as Zia Luciana
• Paolo Romano as Daniele
• Nicola Acunzo as Carabineiri Officer
• Giuseppe Attanasio as Rimaldo
• Jessamine Burgum as Young Mother
• Valerio Da Silva as Waiter
• Cecilia Dazzi as Ilaria
• Arcangelo Iannace as Farmer
• Fabio Salerno as Detective
• Leonardo Verni as Jacopo

The film was directed by David Joseph Craig and Brian Crano, who also co-wrote the screenplay.^[1] Crano is known for his work on television series such as Simply Plimpton . Craig has previously worked primarily as an actor. He has appeared in films such as All These Small Moments and The Prodigal Son in smaller roles. Like their protagonists, Craig and Crano are married. Crano has already cast his husband in a leading role in his second feature film Permission.^[2]

Nick Kroll (top) and Andrew Rannells (bottom) star as Cole and Dom

Nick Kroll and Andrew Rannells play Dom and Cole in the lead roles. Paolo Romano plays Daniele, an old friend of Dom's father, whom they visit in Italy. Arcangelo Iannace plays the farmer who helps them. Nunzia Schiano plays the role of restaurant owner Zia Luciana. Morgan Spector plays her son Massimo and Eleanora Romandini plays his fiancée Francesca. Amanda Seyfried plays Candace, the woman whose child Dom and Cole want to adopt, in a supporting role. Other roles were cast with Giuseppe Attanasio and Cecilia Dazzi.^[3]

Cinematographer Lowell A. Meyer has most recently worked on films such as The Chaos Cop by Jim Cummings, Greener Grass by Jocelyn DeBoer and Dawn Luebbe and, together with Jarin Blaschke, on the thriller Knock at the Cabin by M. Night Shyamalan.

The film music was composed by Danny Bensi and Saunder Jurriaans, who have worked together on a number of films in the past, including The Gift, The Prodigal Son, The Discovery, Wolfpack, Edison and God's Creatures.^[4]

The film premiered at South by Southwest (SXSW) on March 8, 2024,^[5] Overlook Film Festival on April 4, 2024,^[6] and Frameline Film Festival on June 22, 2024.^[7] In August 2024, Vertical acquired distribution rights to the film in North America, the United Kingdom and Ireland, planning to theatrically release it in early 2025.^[8]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 11 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.70/10.^[9] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100, based on 5 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.^[10]

Alison Foreman of IndieWire gave the film a rating of A- and she wrote; Outrageously snappy and unapologetically fun, I Don't Understand You is a must-see for anyone who likes queer romance, horror-comedy, and/or hot Italians.^[11]

However Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com had a negative reaction to the film and he said; Making a movie in which Americans basically carve a path of destruction in another country requires a truly deft tonal hand, and this one just doesn't make sense.^[12]

Rocco T. Thompson of Daily Dead gave the film a movie score of 3.5/5 and wrote; I Don't Understand You is lighter fare for horror fans, but has bloody surprises in store for those willing to take this very bad, very funny trip. See it with your nearest and dearest and plenty of Grappa. Salute!^[13]

David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter gave a positive feedback to the film and he said; A gay adoption comedy that veers off into travel porn before taking a hard left into dark fish-out-of-water farce, I Don't Understand You is a lot fresher and more enjoyable than its generic title might suggest.^[14]

• I Don't Understand You at IMDb