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‘Mermaid’ Review: Florida Man Attacks Locals, Claims to ‘Save’ Aquatic Creature in Mopey Monster Movie
Tyler Cornack's 'Mermaid' plumbs a 'Florida man' premise for its heartbreak and melancholy, but the SXSW selection is missing a hook.
In the midst of a “Jaws” parody opening centered on a monstrous murder at sea, the film takes a pause for a title card labeling the story as “a love letter to Florida.” But the drug-addled shenanigans that follow strive for more than gawking spectacle. Discovering a fang-baring fish-woman (Avery Potemri, a movement artist playing an impressive special effect), Doug tranquilizes the creature and houses it in his bathroom, rejuvenated by his newfound purpose. While Doug’s own arc seems grafted on, it’s these side characters that better evoke Cornack’s proud portrait of his home state: a sun-stroked fantasy floating along an ambient pulse of yacht rock and club beats.
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