It's Blair Troll Project plus. This mockumentary, which staunchly avers it is a documentary, follows three students. Be they of the filmmaking or cryptozoology departments, one can't say, but they're on the trail of the Trollhunter, a surly, quiet, powerful man who stalks the various species of trolls. Once the students expose his true profession, he's ready to reveal all -- to hell with the secrecy. It's a stinking, low paying, thankless job anyway. And away we go. We track the several species of troll ever northward from fjord to frozen landscape in Norway. In the process, we learn all scientific facets of the trolls' lives, habits, personalities, possible illnesses, and how they've remained undetected. The filmmaker's adherence to documentary style often intentionally causes laughs -- perhaps the audience's nervous and excitable way of pulling back from being swept up in this dangerous adventure. Some of the trolls seem to jump out of Jim Henson's workshop, others from an advanced CG program. Suspend your disbelief and let them revive your childhood fears of fairytale monsters in a strange, foreign land. There are lessons to be learned in this troll saga in how it parallels our tamer society, but except for vast generalizations, I can't figure out what they are.
Trollhunter
Director/Writer: André Øvredal
Cast: Otto Jespersen, Glenn ErlandTosterud, Johanna Mørck, Tomas Alf Larsen, Urmila Berg-Domaas, Hans Morten Hansen
Time: 90 min.
Rating: NR
Opening June 17 at the Lumiere Theatre in San Francisco
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