Sour Minnows Fantasia Review: Surreal Paranoia Thriller Is Engaging, if Somewhat Pretentious

Surrealism at genre film festivals is often a mixed bag. While you might get to witness some genuinely intriguing and exciting new visions, you may also encounter work by people who think they are a lot smarter and more original than they are. Thankfully, Harrison Atkins’s sophomore feature, Sour Minnows, is more the former than the latter — not without its flaws, but trippy and perplexing enough to work.

What is Sour Minnows about?

The film follows a man who stumbles across a group of people licking the pavement of an empty Los Angeles street, sending him and his friends down a rabbit hole involving the “Yellow Thing,” a mysterious entity that wears people like costumes. It’s a weird premise that feels less like an original concept than it does an amalgamation of its influences, but Atkins deserves credit for committing to it as whole-heartedly as he does.

Sour Minnows Review

Sour Minnows is one of those works of surrealism that will leave viewers with the question of “What does it all mean?” — and not necessarily in a way that provokes thought like the work of Lynch or Jodorowsky, but in a way that creates frustration. It’s the type of cinematic randomness that you are very on-board with or not, which will determine how much you enjoy the experience.

Although Atkins’s love for the movies is clear, that Sour Minnows is such an ode to cinephilia almost works against the film. With all the characters in the film being cinephiles, it feels like Atkins is writing a bit too much of himself into some of them, which results in the film as a whole having an indefatigable air of pretension about it.

Nevertheless, as someone who can buy into cinephile pretension, being a pretentious cinephile myself, Sour Minnows does have a certain level of charm. Atkins had the wisdom to keep things brief with a short 83-minute runtime, so he is able to sustain the atmosphere and tension enough to maintain momentum. Even when the images are not as smart or obviously meaningful as Atkins seems to think they are, the weird nightmare/uncanny vibes are enough to keep the film engaging.

The cast also deserves a lot of credit for their role in making Sour Minnows compelling. Listening to nerds for 80 minutes is not necessarily the most intriguing prospect on paper, but the actors manage to find the charm in their roles. The most recognizable face in the cast is Suzanna Son (Fear Street: Prom Queen, Red Rocket), who is alluring in an admittedly underdeveloped role. 

The true standout of the cast is comedian David Brown (Jury Duty), who plays the lead. This is a character that, by most stretches of the imagination, you should hate. Ricky is already a bit annoying, and when you add a conspiracy/paranoia element to the mix, it should create a character that feels distant. Yet, Brown brings an unexpected humility to the role. He is funny, but it never feels like he’s the victim of ridicule; he’s losing touch with reality, but not in a way that feels completely insane. These are very delicate lines to toe, and the fact that Brown manages to do so helps ground the film.

Sour Minnows is also grounded by virtue of its limited budget. Atkins isn’t punching above his budgetary weight class, keeping everything feeling mostly restrained and psychological. While one might expect an indie sci-fi movie like this to have a lot of effects work, Atkins instead opts to create images that are weird not out of gore but zaniness. It allows the film to do much more with what little it has.

Is Sour Minnows worth watching?

Not everything about Sour Minnows works, but the things that work well work a lot better than they should on paper. Although Harrison Atkins crosses the line into pretension on more than one occasion, the weirdness of his sophomore feature is so undeniable and transfixing that it is worth your time.

Sour Minnows is screening at the 2026 Fantasia International Film Festival, which runs July 16-August 2.

Sour Minnows Fantasia Review: Surreal Paranoia Thriller Is Engaging, if Somewhat Pretentious